We study how competition for talent affects CEO compensation, taking into consideration that CEO decisions and CEO skills or talent are not observable, and CEOs can manipulate performance as measured by outsiders. Firms compete by offering contracts that generate rents for the CEO. We derive the...

We study optimal compensation contracts that (i) are designed to address a joint moral hazard and adverse selection problem and that (ii) are based on performance measures which may be manipulated by the agent at a cost. In the model, a manager is privately informed about his productivity prior...