IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/acctfi/v60y2020is1p771-804.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

CEO risk‐taking incentives and relative performance evaluation

Author

Listed:
  • Dirk E. Black

Abstract

This paper examines how changes in CEO risk‐taking incentives are associated with changes in the use of relative performance evaluation (RPE) in CEO contracts. Using a shock to the accounting for executive stock options (FAS 123R), I confirm that risk‐taking incentives and option grants declined following FAS 123R using a within‐firm design, but not a within‐CEO‐firm design. Decreased risk‐taking incentives lead executives to invest in projects with lower systematic risk and can result in reduced incentives to hedge exposure to systematic risk in CEO compensation contracts via RPE. However, CEO relative risk aversion increases with decreases in risk‐taking incentives, potentially increasing incentives to protect CEO wealth from systematic performance via RPE. Testing these competing predictions, I find modest evidence consistent with reduced RPE surrounding FAS 123R, suggesting that when CEO risk‐taking incentives are reduced, so are incentives to shield CEO pay from systematic performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Dirk E. Black, 2020. "CEO risk‐taking incentives and relative performance evaluation," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 60(S1), pages 771-804, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:60:y:2020:i:s1:p:771-804
    DOI: 10.1111/acfi.12372
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/acfi.12372
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/acfi.12372?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bakke, Tor-Erik & Mahmudi, Hamed & Fernando, Chitru S. & Salas, Jesus M., 2016. "The causal effect of option pay on corporate risk management," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(3), pages 623-643.
    2. Bengt Holmstrom, 1982. "Moral Hazard in Teams," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 13(2), pages 324-340, Autumn.
    3. Holmstrom, Bengt & Milgrom, Paul, 1987. "Aggregation and Linearity in the Provision of Intertemporal Incentives," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 55(2), pages 303-328, March.
    4. Lawrence D. Brown & Yen-Jung Lee, 2011. "Changes in Option-Based Compensation Around the Issuance of SFAS 123R," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(9-10), pages 1053-1095, November.
    5. Albuquerque, Ana, 2009. "Peer firms in relative performance evaluation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 69-89, October.
    6. John Core & Wayne Guay, 2002. "Estimating the Value of Employee Stock Option Portfolios and Their Sensitivities to Price and Volatility," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 613-630, June.
    7. Hayes, Rachel M. & Lemmon, Michael & Qiu, Mingming, 2012. "Stock options and managerial incentives for risk taking: Evidence from FAS 123R," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 174-190.
    8. Hyungshin Park & Dimitris Vrettos, 2015. "The Moderating Effect of Relative Performance Evaluation on the Risk Incentive Properties of Executives’ Equity Portfolios," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 1055-1108, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xinheng Liu & Shuxian Li & Chengbo Fu & Xu Gong & Chen Fan, 2024. "The oil price plummeted in 2014–2015: Is there an effect on Chinese firms' labour investment?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(1), pages 943-960, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yu, Zeng, 2024. "Essays on incentive contract and corporate finance," Other publications TiSEM 6f66f49e-d710-44f6-943d-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Do, Truc & Zhang, Huai & Zuo, Luo, 2022. "Rocking the boat: How relative performance evaluation affects corporate risk taking," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1).
    3. Canil, Jean & Karpavičius, Sigitas, 2022. "Managerial risk-taking incentives and cash holding in U.S. firms: Evidence from FAS 123R," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 605-628.
    4. Canil, Jean, 2017. "Non-dividend protected executive options and dividend policy: Evidence from SFAS 123R," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 15-33.
    5. Na, Ke, 2020. "CEOs’ outside opportunities and relative performance evaluation: evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(3), pages 679-700.
    6. Bettis, J. Carr & Bizjak, John & Coles, Jeffrey L. & Kalpathy, Swaminathan, 2018. "Performance-vesting provisions in executive compensation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 194-221.
    7. Jiyeon Yun & James M. Carson & David L. Eckles, 2023. "Executive compensation and corporate risk management," Journal of Risk & Insurance, The American Risk and Insurance Association, vol. 90(2), pages 521-557, June.
    8. Merz, Alexander, 2017. "What have we learned from SFAS 123r and IFRS 2? A review of existing evidence and future research suggestions," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 14-33.
    9. An, Suwei, 2023. "Essays on incentive contracts, M&As, and firm risk," Other publications TiSEM dd97d2f5-1c9d-47c5-ba62-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    10. Michael Mayberry, 2020. "Good for managers, bad for society? Causal evidence on the association between risk‐taking incentives and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(9-10), pages 1182-1214, October.
    11. Martin Nienhaus, 2022. "Executive equity incentives and opportunistic manager behavior: new evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 1276-1318, December.
    12. Ferreira, Daniel & Athanasakou, Vasiliki & Goh, Lisa, 2017. "Changes in CEO Stock Option Grants: A Look at the Numbers," CEPR Discussion Papers 12318, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Hong, Jieying, 2019. "Managerial compensation incentives and corporate debt maturity: Evidence from FAS 123R," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 388-414.
    14. Choi, Daewoung & Lee, Jinsook & Yi, Ha-Chin, 2023. "Managerial risk-taking incentives and debt diversity: Evidence from FAS 123R," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    15. Wruck, Karen H. & Wu, YiLin, 2021. "The relation between CEO equity incentives and the quality of accounting disclosures: New evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    16. Neslihan Ozkan & Zvi Singer & Haifeng You, 2012. "Mandatory IFRS Adoption and the Contractual Usefulness of Accounting Information in Executive Compensation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(4), pages 1077-1107, September.
    17. Christoph Feichter & Frank Moers & Oscar Timmermans, 2022. "Relative Performance Evaluation and Competitive Aggressiveness," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(5), pages 1859-1913, December.
    18. Stanimir Morfov & Manuel Santos, 2017. "A Model of Managerial Talent: Addressing Some Puzzles in CEO Compensation," Working Papers 2017-03, University of Miami, Department of Economics.
    19. Kubick, Thomas R. & Lockhart, G. Brandon, 2016. "Do external labor market incentives motivate CEOs to adopt more aggressive corporate tax reporting preferences?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 255-277.
    20. Athanasakou, Vasiliki & Ferreira, Daniel & Goh, Lisa, 2022. "Changes in CEO stock option grants: a look at the numbers," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115609, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:acctfi:v:60:y:2020:i:s1:p:771-804. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaanzea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.