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Cost behavior and executive bonus compensation

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  • Caylor, Marcus L.
  • Lopez, Thomas J.

Abstract

Prior literature provides compelling evidence of an asymmetric relation between executive bonus compensation and earnings performance. In particular, this literature reports that compensation committees assign greater weight to good (positive) earnings performance than poor (negative) earnings performance. Taken together, the prior literature provides strong support for critics who claim that compensation committees blindly protect executives from earnings underperformance. We further examine this issue by investigating whether a firm's cost behavior (i.e., the relation between expenses and sales) provides an explanation for the apparent inefficiency in executive compensation contracts. Our evidence suggests that executives are rewarded more for increases in ROA that arise from normal cost behavior than other increases in ROA consistent with these increases being perceived as more persistent. In contrast, we do not find such a relationship for decreases in ROA which suggests that executives are largely shielded from decreases in ROA that follow normal cost behavior. We examine two factors suggested by the prior literature, expected future sales and the extent of capacity utilization, which may provide an explanation for why executives are shielded from normal cost behavior decreases in ROA. When these additional factors are included in our empirical models, our evidence suggests that the asymmetric relation between changes in CEO bonus compensation and increases and decreases in earnings performance documented in prior literature goes away. That is, our results suggest that compensation committees do not blindly protect executives for earnings underperformance. On the contrary, our evidence suggests that these committees take into account other non-earnings information when deciding how much weight to give to a decrease in earnings and that executive compensation may not be as inefficient as suggested by prior research.

Suggested Citation

  • Caylor, Marcus L. & Lopez, Thomas J., 2013. "Cost behavior and executive bonus compensation," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 232-242.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:advacc:v:29:y:2013:i:2:p:232-242
    DOI: 10.1016/j.adiac.2013.08.001
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sloan, Richard G., 1993. "Accounting earnings and top executive compensation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1-3), pages 55-100, April.
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    3. Leone, Andrew J. & Wu, Joanna Shuang & Zimmerman, Jerold L., 2006. "Asymmetric sensitivity of CEO cash compensation to stock returns," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 167-192, October.
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    7. Baber, William R. & Kang, Sok-Hyon & Kumar, Krishna R., 1998. "Accounting earnings and executive compensation:: The role of earnings persistence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 169-193, May.
    8. Lambert, Ra & Larcker, Df, 1987. "An Analysis Of The Use Of Accounting And Market Measures Of Performance In Executive-Compensation Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25, pages 85-129.
    9. Augustine Duru & Raghavan J. Iyengar & Alex Thevaranjan, 2002. "The Shielding of CEO Compensation from the Effects of Strategic Expenditures," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(2), pages 175-193, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Jaiswall, Sudhir Shiv Kumar & Bhattacharyya, Asish Kumar, 2016. "Corporate governance and CEO compensation in Indian firms," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 159-175.

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