We document that credit rating changes significantly affect chief executive officer's (CEO's) incentives. Modeling both credit rating changes and CEO incentive changes as two jointly endogenous processes, we present strong evidence that CEO incentives increase subsequent to credit downgrades...

This paper examines under what circumstances the market-based compensation scheme is effective in inducing managers' incentives. We combine the optimal contract theory with the market microstructure literature and endogenize both the optimal compensation scheme and the stock market equilibrium....