Investment in the absence of property rights; the role of incumbency advantages

In many situations the individuals who can generate some output must enter a contest for appropriating this output. This paper analyses the investment incentives of such agents and the role of incumbency advantages in the contest. Depending on the advantages, an increase in the productivity of the investment can decrease or increase the amount of investment. The results are applied to autocrats’ investment behavior and job specific investment in organizations.     

Comparing Conventional and New Policy Approaches for Carnivore Conservation: Theoretical Results and Application to Tiger Conservation

New policy approaches to facilitate the co-existence of wildlife and livestock are needed for situations where predation incidents greatly impact households’ income and retaliatory killing threatens endangered carnivore species’ survival. In this paper, models are developed to assess how two alternative policy approaches impact a herder’s decisions on carnivore hunting and livestock protection. We find that while the well-established ex-post compensation policy induces suboptimal livestock protection it can generate sufficient incentives for the herder to refrain from hunting so that the carnivore population reaches its socially optimal level. Performance payments are proposed as alternative policy. They are found not to distort livestock protection incentives and can also help achieve a socially optimal carnivore population level. Which of the two scheme types gives rise to less cost is ambiguous. An empirical analysis of the model with data from tiger-livestock conflicts in India is presented.     

Managerial value diversion and shareholder wealth

The agents to whom shareholders delegate the management of corporateaffairs may transfer value from shareholders to themselves througha variety of mechanisms, such as self-dealing, insider trading,and taking of corporate opportunities. A common view in thelaw and economics literature is that such value diversion doesnot ultimately produce a reduction in shareholder wealth, sincevalue diversion simply substitutes for alternative forms ofcompensation that would otherwise be paid to managers. We questionthis view within its own analytical framework by studying, ina principal-agent model, the effects of allowing value diversionon managerial compensation and effort. We suggest that the standardlaw and economics view of diversion overlooks a significantcost of such behavior. Many common modes of compensation canprovide managers with incentives to enhance shareholder value;replacing such compensation would reduce these incentives. Asa result, even if the consequences of a rule permitting valuediversion can be fully taken into account in setting managerialcompensation, such a rule might still produce a reduction inshareholder wealth - and would not do so only if value diversionwould have some countervailing positive effects (a possibilitywhich our model considers) that are sufficiently significantin size.     

The optimal shape of compensation contracts with earnings management

The research question of why earnings management occurs is decomposed into two questions in this article: Which component of executive compensation generates incentives for earnings management? and Why is the compensation structured that way in the first place? We first use as a dynamic stochastic equilibrium model to show that ‘big bath’ and earning overstatement can co-exist as equilibrium financial reporting strategies when thresholds are used in compensation contracts. In order to understand the use of performance thresholds as a prevailing compensation strategy in practice, we then derive the optimal compensation contract when the manager is privately informed about economic earnings and his expertise in managing earnings. Equilibria exist in which the inactive region below a threshold in compensation should be economically significant.     

Risk-dominance and perfect foresight dynamics in N-player games

In perfect foresight dynamics, an action is linearly stable if expectation that people will always choose the action is self-fulfilling. A symmetric game is a PIM game if an opponent's particular action maximizes the incentive of an action, independently of the rest of the players. This class includes supermodular games, games with linear incentives and so forth. We show that, in PIM games, linear stability is equivalent to u-dominance, a generalization of risk-dominance, and that there is no path escaping a u-dominant equilibrium. Existing results on N-player coordination games, games with linear incentives and two-player games are obtained as corollaries.     

投资管理人最优报酬合同三题

资产管理行业的发展是近年来我国金融系统最重要的结构性变化之一,而如何签订与投资管理人的报酬合同是关键问题。本文从委托——代理关系的视角,分析委托资产管理的特殊性,就最优报酬合同是否应该含有比较基准、是否应该是线性的以及业绩报酬是否应该是隐性的进行了探讨,指出投资管理人的最优报酬合同不应照搬一般的委托代理合同。     

Managerial compensation and incentives in for-profit and nonprofit hospitals

Differential economic behavior of for-profit and nonprofit institutionscan be manifest in both output and input markets. When behaviorin output markets is difficult to observe, behavior in inputmarkets can be useful proxies. We examine monetary compensationand its composition between base salary and bonus, and the associatedincentive structures, in the U.S. hospital industry. Our datapermit controlling for interinstitutional differences in thescope and complexity of jobs having the same titles, as wellas differences in organization size and other variables. Wefind (1) total monetary compensation for the two top executivejobs is substantially higher in the for-profit sector; and (2)the composition of compensation as between base salary and bonusdiffers materially across forms of organization, bonuses beingabsolutely and relatively greater in the for-profit sector.Particularly noteworthy is the finding that for-profit hospitalsutilize compensation mechanisms that, by involving larger contingentcomponents, provide stronger incentives - greater rewards -as compared with nonprofit hospitals, for performance that ismore easily monitored. While our findings are consistent withmore than one model of comparative organizations differ in theirgoals and, hence, in the kinds of managers they demand and thereward structures they offer. Nonprofit organizations may pursueobjectives that reflect greater concern about collective goodsor other outputs that are more difficult to measure and reward.Alternatively, nonprofits, confronted by a nondistribution constrainton the payout of profit to managers, may lack incentives forefficiency, and so may pursue other goals such as a quiet life.Such differential objective functions, together with the differentialconstraints on the distribution of profit to managers, havetwo kinds of implications. (1) Nonprofit and for-profit organizationsmay attract different kinds of managers, especially at the toplevels, because nonprofits prefer working for a nonprofit organizationand, hence, may offer a lower supply price to them. (2) Thetwo types of organizations can be expected to offer differentialcomposition of compensation as between base salary and performance-basedbonus, providing different incentives for managers. Our analysisis positive in character, the goal being to identify systematicdifferences in organization behavior.     

Managerial compensation and R&D investments: the role of the external managerial labour market

This paper investigates the importance of the external managerial labour market in the determination of managerial compensation and in the influence of the compensation incentives on a firm’s R&D investments. I design an empirical model including the compensation adjustment regression, of which the focus is the role of the external labour market, and the R&D regression that examines how the compensation incentives derived from the external labour market affect a firm’s R&D intensity. Empirical results suggest that the R&D intensity is positively related to the premium of the actual pay adjustments over the expected pay adjustments based on the external labour market comparisons. The effect of the compensation incentives on the R&D investments is strongest when managers expect pay to decrease but actually experience an increase in pay.     

高管薪酬激励、股权激励与企业价值相关性的实证检验

基于1998年到2008年上市公司的面板数据,本文实证分析了高管薪酬、高管持股对企业价值的影响,结果发现高管薪酬对企业价值有非线性的"U"型影响,在高管薪酬超过一定的额度后,高管薪酬激励明显呈现出边际递增的激励效果.高管持股比例对企业价值只有线性正向影响,并未发现高管持股对企业价值的非线性影响关系.本文认为中国上市公司的高管薪酬激励发挥了一定的激励效果,上市公司应该合理的对高管进行薪酬激励和股权激励.     

The impact of management incentives in intergroup contests

In intergroup contests a manager advises and motivates her group’s members. Her rewards often depend on the subsequent contest expenditure of the members. I test whether such incentives undermine the credibility and effectiveness of a manager’s efforts. In the different experimental treatments the managers either benefit from very high or low expenditure or get a predetermined payment. The results show that different management incentives shape the expenditure of the group members even if managers have an advisory role only. However, group members follow recommendations more closely if management compensation is not linked to contest expenditures.     

Possible Policies for Expansion

The Australian economy appears certain to be operating at well below full employment into 1992, or even longer. Further reductions in interest rates would operate on output only with long lags, and would be the most inflationary form of stimulus. But cuts in a wide range of indirect taxes, and tax incentives for new investment - especially if announced as temporary - would reduce the length and depth of the recession.
Results of simulations with macro-economic models for a number of countries imply that cuts in indirect taxes or in taxes on employment (either alone or in combination with other fiscal measures) reduce prices as well as stimulating employment and real output. Similar fiscal measures are likely also to improve the current account at any given level of employment or real output, and even more likely to increase the country's net wealth (private investment less the current account deficit).
Failure to adopt appropriate types of fiscal stimulus would reduce the benefits of microeconomic reform and make such reforms harder to achieve. Even if it were true that these forms of fiscal stimulus would not raise real output, the tax cuts in question would at least reduce inflation and could not then increase the current account deficit.     

Knightian uncertainty and moral hazard

This paper presents a principal-agent model in which the agent has imprecise beliefs. We model this situation formally by assuming the agent?s preferences are incomplete as in Bewley (1986) [2]. In this setting, incentives must be robust to Knightian uncertainty. We study the implications of robustness for the form of the resulting optimal contracts. We give conditions under which there is a unique optimal contract, and show that it must have a simple flat payment plus bonus structure. That is, output levels are divided into two sets, and the optimal contract pays the same wage for all output levels in each set. We derive this result for the case in which the agent?s utility function is linear and then show it also holds if this utility function has some limited curvature.     

Financial innovations and managerial incentive contracting

Abstract.  The top executives' demands for financial instruments that enable them to hedge the risk exposure in their compensation has increased drastically in the last decade. We analyse the implications of a manager's hedging ability for effort incentives. We show that if the manager's hedging opportunity is limited to a known fixed number of trading rounds with risk‐neutral third parties, then the equilibrium effort is not affected at all. If the manager has the opportunity to hedge without committing to a last trading round, however, she hedges completely and no effort incentives can be sustained. Therefore, limiting the manager's opportunity to hedge to a fixed known number of trading rounds is crucial for sustaining incentives. JEL classification: G30, G32     

Welfare reducing licensing

In this paper, we characterize situations where licensing a cost reducing innovation to a rival firm using two-part tariff contracts (a fixed fee plus a linear per unit of output royalty) reduces social welfare. We show that it occurs if (i) the firms compete in prices, (ii) the innovation is large enough but not drastic, and (iii) the goods are close enough substitutes. Moreover, we show that, regardless of the type of competition, first, the optimal contract always includes a positive royalty and, second, even drastic innovations are licensed whenever the goods are not homogeneous.     

RAISING WAGES TO DETER ENTRY INTO UNIONIZED MARKETS*

This paper investigates entry under a unionized oligopoly when entry and wage negotiations are sequential. We find the incumbent has incentives to raise the wage, which strengthens the bargaining position of the union relative to the entrant at subsequent negotiations and thus discourages entry. We show that entry is more likely to be deterred (accommodated) if the union is wage (employment) oriented and that raising unemployment compensation during recession not only reduces the burden of the unemployed but also induces new entry, creating more employment opportunities. However, during a business boom, reducing unemployment compensation is a better policy.     

The Welfare Effects of Incentive Schemes

This paper computes the change in welfare associated with the introduction of incentives. We calculate by how much the welfare gains of increased output due to incentives outweigh workers' disutility from increased effort. We accomplish this by studying the use of incentives by a firm in the check-clearing industry. Using this firm's production records, we model and estimate the worker's dynamic effort decision problem. We find that the firm's incentive scheme has a large effect on productivity, raising it by 12% over the sample period for the average worker. Using our parameter estimates, we show that the cost of increased effort due to incentives is equal to the dollar value of a 5% rise in productivity. Welfare is measured as the output produced minus the cost of effort; hence, the net increase in the average worker's welfare due to the introduction of the firm's bonus plan is 7%. Under a first-best scheme, we find that the net increase in welfare is 9%.     

A simple explanation of the relative performance evaluation puzzle

We study a simple moral hazard model in which two risk-neutral owners establish incentives for their risk-averse managers to exert effort. Because the probability distributions over output realizations depend on a common aggregate shock, optimal contracts make the compensation of each manager contingent on own performance but also on a performance benchmark—the performance of the other firm. If the marginal return of effort depends on the aggregate state, optimal contracts are not monotonically decreasing in the performance benchmark. This provides a simple explanation of the Relative Performance Evaluation (RPE) Puzzle—the documented lack of a negative relationship between CEO compensation and comparative performance measures, such as industry or market performance. Our simple model can also explain one-sided RPE—the documented tendency to insulate a CEO's rewards from bad luck, but not from good luck. We clarify that our results are robust in several dimensions and we discuss other applications of our findings.     

Currency Crises, Monetary Policy and Corporate Balance Sheets

Abstract. This paper studies how the exposure of a country's corporate sector to interest rate and exchange rate changes affects the probability of a currency crisis. To analyze this question, we present a model that defines currency crises as situations in which the costs of maintaining a fixed exchange rate exceed the costs of abandonment. The results show that a higher exposure to interest rate changes increases the probability of crisis through an increased need for output loss compensation and an increased efficacy of monetary policy in stimulating output. A higher exposure to exchange rate changes also increases the need for output loss compensation. However, it lowers the efficacy of monetary policy in stimulating output through the adverse balance sheet effects of exchange rate depreciation. As a result, its effect on the probability of crisis is ambiguous.     

Is executive compensation a substitute governance mechanism to debt financing and leasing?

This study examines whether and how CEO equity incentives relate to financing choices (i.e., debt and leases). Using manually collected CEO compensation and lease data for a sample of large UK firms, we found evidence of a negative relationship between CEO equity incentives and firm leverage. We also found that CEO equity incentives and leases are negatively related. The results are consistent with the theory introduced in this study on the substitutability of executive compensation and firm’s debt/lease financing. Our findings represent fresh empirical evidence and renewed interpretation regarding the relationship between executive equity-based incentives and firm’s financing choices. The substitutability theory we introduced here suggests that firms with greater use of debt and/or leases will implement less equity-based compensation in mitigating the agency cost of equity.     

Why do firms adopt CEO stock options? Evidence from the United States

This paper examines the determinants of stock option introduction as a part of CEO compensation in listed US firms during the 1994–2004 period. The results are consistent with agency costs and recruiting considerations, suggesting that firms do not adjust CEO compensation in order to address the ‘investment horizon’ problem. The findings also suggest that CEO stock option adoption is not necessarily influenced by the same factors that have been found in the literature to affect the level of CEO stock option compensation and the adoption of broad-based stock option incentives. Overall, the findings provide evidence for several theoretical predictions, thus adding to our understanding of managerial incentives.