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The Politics of Pay: The Unintended Consequences of Regulating Executive Compensation

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  • Murphy, Kevin J.
  • Jensen, Michael C.

Abstract

The persistent outrage over CEO pay expressed by politicians, the press, media, labor unions, and the general public (but not shareholders) have prompted the imposition of a wide range of disclosure requirements, tax policies, accounting rules, governance reforms, direct legislation, and other rules constraining executive compensation stretching back nearly a century. We analyze the regulations that have substantially damaged the efficacy of CEO pay practices, ranging from the first disclosure rules in the 1930s to the 2018 Trump tax rules. We discuss the political forces behind the regulatory interventions, and assess the continuing unintended consequences of these interventions. Our emerging conclusion is that the best way the government can fix executive compensation is to stop trying to fix it, and by undoing the damage already caused through existing regulations that have, in aggregate, imposed enormous costs on organizations, their shareholders, and social welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Murphy, Kevin J. & Jensen, Michael C., 2018. "The Politics of Pay: The Unintended Consequences of Regulating Executive Compensation," Journal of Law, Finance, and Accounting, now publishers, vol. 3(2), pages 189-242, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:now:jnllfa:108.00000030
    DOI: 10.1561/108.00000030
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    Cited by:

    1. Ilona Babenko & Benjamin Bennett & John M Bizjak & Jeffrey L Coles & Jason J Sandvik, 2023. "Clawback Provisions and Firm Risk," The Review of Corporate Finance Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 191-239.
    2. Florian Hoffmann & Roman Inderst & Marcus Opp, 2022. "The Economics of Deferral and Clawback Requirements," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 77(4), pages 2423-2470, August.
    3. Guo, Xiaohu & Gupta, Vishal K. & Jackson, William E. & Mortal, Sandra C., 2021. "Is there a racial gap in CEO compensation?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    4. Niemann, Rainer & Sailer, Mariana, 2024. "Do taxes explain why firms rarely use performance-based malus contracts?," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    5. Sonia Yasin & Muhammad Irfan & Muhammad Shaukat Malik & Fasiha Nargis, 2022. "The Relationship between Executive Remuneration and Organizations Efficiency," Journal of Policy Research (JPR), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 8(3), pages 59-70, December.
    6. Joura, Essam & Xiao, Qin & Ullah, Subhan, 2021. "The impact of Say-on-Pay votes on firms' strategic policies: Insights from the Anglo-Saxon economy," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    7. Blank, D. Brian, 2019. "Executive Incentives, Import Restrictions, and Competition: Empirical Analysis of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Orders," Working Papers 09889, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.
    8. Harvey, Charles & Maclean, Mairi & Price, Michael, 2020. "Executive remuneration and the limits of disclosure as an instrument of corporate governance," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    9. Essam Joura & Qin Xiao & Subhan Ullah, 2023. "The moderating effects of CEO power and personal traits on say‐on‐pay effectiveness: Insights from the Anglo‐Saxon economies," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 4055-4078, October.
    10. Kun Su & Haiyan Jiang & Gary Tian, 2020. "Government's Say‐on‐pay Policy and Corporate Risk‐taking: Evidence from China," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 56(4), pages 561-601, December.
    11. Wonjae Chang & Michael Dambra & Bryce Schonberger & Inho Suk, 2023. "Does Sensationalism Affect Executive Compensation? Evidence from Pay Ratio Disclosure Reform," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(1), pages 187-242, March.
    12. Timmermans, Oscar, 2024. "Cash versus share payouts in relative performance plans," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 123696, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Mei Cheng & Yuan Zhang, 2024. "Corporate stakeholders and CEO-worker pay gap: evidence from CEO pay ratio disclosure," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 3713-3751, December.
    14. Patrick J. Ferguson & Matthew Pinnuck, 2022. "Superstar Productivity and Pay: Evidence from the Australian Football League," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 98(321), pages 166-190, June.

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