Managers often have foreknowledge of events that can increase future firm risks. In this study, I examine whether managers alter their personal portfolios based on their foreknowledge. Specifically, I examine whether managers expedite or delay their stock option exercises in anticipation of...

Responding to the financial crisis of 2008, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank Act”) to “provide for financial regulatory reform” and to “protect consumers and investors[.]” Section 951 of the Dodd-Frank Act (“Section 951”)...

Using manager compensation disclosure and intra-family manager cooperation measures, we create indices of family-level competitive/cooperative incentives. Families that encourage cooperation among their managers are more likely to engage in coordinated behavior (e.g., cross-trading,...

This paper shows that portfolio constraints have important implications for management compensation and performance evaluation. In particular, in the presence of portfolio constraints, allowing for benchmarking can be bene cial. Benchmark design arises as an alternative effort inducement...

The recent financial crisis and historical record suggest important lessons about the design of national pension systems. First, wide fluctuation in asset returns makes it hard for well-informed savers to select a saving rate or a sensible investment strategy for DC pensions. Workers who follow...

This report reviews recent as well as planned changes to accounting and solvency regulations affecting insurers and pension funds and how they may impact long-term investing by these institutions. The review of existing evidence focuses mainly on the impact of risk-based solvency requirements,...

The use of target-date funds (TDFs) in 401(k) plans has increased rapidly in recent years. The percentage of all 401(k) plan participants using TDFs increased from 25 percent in 2007 to 31 percent in 2008. One of the reasons for this growth is that TDFs have been a popular choice for the default...

Empirical research in finance has documented a strong positive and convex relationship between investment performance and flows in and out of managed portfolios such as mutual funds. It is also well-known that fee contracts for portfolio managers give the manager a fixed-fraction of assets under...

Little is known about how different bonus schemes affect traders' propensity to trade and which bonus schemes improve traders' performance. This paper studies the effects of linear versus threshold convex bonus schemes on traders' behavior. Traders purchase and sell shares in an experimental...

To establish current savings behavior, one necessary measurement of retirement preparation is identifying the percentage of workers with employment-based retirement plans, as well as understanding the characteristics of workers with and without access to such programs. The findings from this...