Alignment Exposed: How Ceos Are Paid, And What Their Shareholders Get For It

This article begins by arguing that, for many companies, there is a significant “disconnect” between how managers are paid and what is actually achieved for shareholders. This paper answers two questions of prime importance to investors: Is there a way to know beforehand whether managers' incentives are well aligned with those of its shareholders? And does such alignment actually make a difference in the returns one is likely to see? In answering the first question, the author argues that cash bonuses and performance‐based equity grants (i.e., grants based on managers' meeting accounting‐based operating targets) are likely to provide stronger, more cost‐effective incentives than grants of stock or options because the former are generally based on measures over which managers have significantly more control than the stock price. Using this insight, the author develops a method for evaluating compensation structures based on the variability of compensation, the number and type of compensation metrics purportedly driving that variability (including the award of performance shares or options), the stability of those metrics over time, and the apparent level of discretion in the use of those metrics to either fund or distribute bonuses (including equity). All these elements are disclosed to varying degrees in the proxy statements or annual reports of companies. Using his compensation scores for 140 companies and their return history over the last eight years, the author concludes that “high alignment” companies outperform their “low alignment” peers by more than 5% per year in total shareholder returns. Furthermore, increases in alignment scores by individual companies over time tend to lead to higher total shareholder returns, and degradation of scores lead to lower returns. In short, observable improvements in compensation structure appear to pay off in the form of significant abnormal returns.