Arguably the most convincing “smoking gun” evidence that CEO pay is excessive is how it’s risen much faster than median worker pay. In the U.S., CEO pay was $10 million, 350 times that of the average worker in 2013, compared to 40 times in 1980. This seems to debunk any argument that CEOs deserve their …
Why has CEO pay risen so much faster than worker pay? Read More »
Executive compensation needs to be reformed. But, most of the calls for reform focus on the wrong dimensions. They focus on the level of pay, or the ratio of executive pay to median worker pay – even though the evidence suggests that low ratios are linked to lower future performance. As I have argued in the Wall Street Journal …
Long-Term Executive Incentives Improve Innovation and Corporate Responsibility Read More »
MSCI have released an impactful study entitled “Are CEOs Paid for Performance? Evaluating the Effectiveness of Equity Incentives”, purporting to show that equity incentives lead to poor long-term performance. In simple language, they just don’t work. This study has been highly influential and seized upon by the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and Fortune as “smoking gun” evidence that …
Why the MSCI Study Does NOT Show That Equity Incentives Backfire Read More »
Andy Haldane, the Chief Economist of the Bank of England, said that pensions are so complex that even someone “moderately financially literate” like he can’t understand them. This complexity certainly applies to pension tax rules when combined with changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (for employees of UK universities): despite being a finance professor, it’s taken …
Translating the New USS Pension Rules Into Plain English Read More »
Few topics make the public as angry as CEO pay. In the UK, the average FTSE 100 CEO earned £5.4m in 2015, 148 times the median worker. For US S&P 500 CEOs, these figures are even more extreme: $12.4m and 335 times. This pressures politicians to do something about CEO pay. Indeed, regulating pay might nowadays …
How Virtually Every Pay Regulation Has Backfired Read More »
Few business topics capture the public’s interest – and ire – as CEO pay. Indeed, a major reason why executives carried little weight in the Brexit referendum was the belief that they are overpaid crooks. But, does perception actually match reality? The public’s view is largely shaped by what the media reports. And, the media …