We investigate the extent to which market participants use compensation payouts released in the DEF 14A proxy statement (DEF14A) to assess future firm performance by examining sell-side analysts' earnings forecasts. Consistent with prior work, we confirm that CEO compensation unexplained by...

The effectiveness of relative performance evaluation (RPE) in compensation contracts depends on a firm's ability to identify peers that are subject to similar exogenous shocks with similar abilities to respond to such shocks. We expand the RPE literature by considering whether firms routinely...

Academic and anecdotal evidence indicates that incentive systems often provide short-term payouts without regard for long-term consequences. New detailed disclosures mandated by FIN No. 48, Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes, enable us to use a tax setting to investigate whether boards...

We investigate how boards use discretion in contracting to incorporate private information about managerial performance. Building from the literature documenting that loss firms' publicly available valuation allowance (VA) disclosures contain value-relevant private information, we show the VA...

This study uses the firm life cycle framework to extend our understanding of firm contracting practices. First, based on the theory of firm characteristics and the nature of firm transactions in each life cycle stage, we document significant differences in both the level and mix of executive...

As firms evolve, the tasks required to generate firm value change, as does the ability of earnings to reflect changes in that value. To the extent earnings differentially captures managers’ effort toward desire tasks, contracting theory suggests its role in incentive pay should also change....

"This book describes the current state of college student mental health in the United States, influences that contribute to non-flourishing mental health, factors (at a classroom level and campus-wide) that promote flourishing mental health, and interventions that support mental...

We use two sets of customer satisfaction measures obtained from a homebuilding company to examine the effect of measurement timing on the association between customer satisfaction measures and future financial performance. The research site employs two separate consulting firms that measure...