We examine managerial compensation and wealth sensitivities around CEO changes. The average new CEO is incentivized to increase the risk of the firm primarily because he holds significantly less stock than his predecessor, and in fact riskier policy choices are subsequently implemented. Similar...

Financial theory holds that firms can control agency costs through the use of short-term and secured debt. We examine the relation between the use of secured debt and the incentive of the manager to increase the risk of the firm, as measured by vega. We find that firms utilize secured debt to a...

We examine the impact of managerial risk exposure on capital structure selection by comparing a sample of 123 all-equity firms to a set of levered firms matched on the basis of industry, market cap and market-to-book assets. Net debt levels decline as CEO wealth sensitivity to stock price...