Because public firms are not required to disclose the monetary value of pension plans in their executive pay disclosures, financial economists have generally analyzed executive pay using figures that do not include the value of such pension plans. This paper presents evidence that omitting the...

We show that CEO golden parachute contracts are responsive to a tax on golden parachutes, and CEO option exercises are responsive to these contracts. In particular, as a consequence of a tax code provision penalizing parachutes greater than 3 times taxable income, CEO parachute contracts...