During the last decade, the stratospheric increases in Chief Executive Officer (CEO) pay levels have made executive compensation a popular target for shareholder activism, particularly when high pay is accompanied by poor corporate performance. Outraged investors have made their views know to...

Directors' remuneration has always been a controversial topic, in the court of public opinion the verdict seems to be that they are overpaid and this has led to a feeling of injustice. However misplaced this opinion is bearing in mind that most of the public may be guilty of looking at the value...

We study whether shareholder scrutiny affects CEO pay. Our identification strategy exploits the fact that recent "say-on-pay" regulation allowed firms to hold votes every two or three years. Depending on their voting frequency, firms experience alternating years where scrutiny on compensation...