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Empire-builders and shirkers: Investment, firm performance, and managerial incentives

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  • Aggarwal, Rajesh K.
  • Samwick, Andrew A.

Abstract

Do firms systematically over- or underinvest as a result of agency problems? We develop a contracting model between shareholders and managers in which managers have private benefits or private costs of investment. Managers overinvest when they have private benefits and underinvest when they have private costs. Optimal incentive contracts mitigate the over- or underinvestment problem. We derive comparative static predictions for the equilibrium relationships between incentives from compensation, investment, and firm performance for both cases. The relationship between firm performance and managerial incentives, in isolation, is insufficient to identify whether managers have private benefits or private costs of investment. In order to identify whether managers have private benefits or costs, we estimate the joint relationships between incentives and firm performance and between incentives and investment. Our empirical results show that both firm performance and investment are increasing in managerial incentives. These results are consistent with managers having private costs of investment. We find no support for overinvestment based on private benefits.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Corporate Finance.

Volume (Year): 12 (2006)
Issue (Month): 3 (June)
Pages: 489-515

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Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:12:y:2006:i:3:p:489-515

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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcorpfin

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Chirinko, Robert & Garretsen, Harry & Sterken, Elmer, 2003. "Corporate control mechanisms, voting and cash flow rights, and the performance of Dutch firms," CCSO Working Papers 200309, University of Groningen, CCSO Centre for Economic Research.
  2. Florackis, Chrisostomos & Kostakis, Alexandros & Ozkan, Aydin, 2009. "Managerial ownership and performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(12), pages 1350-1357, December.
  3. Vahe Lskavyan & Mariana Spatareanu, 2010. "Shareholder Protection, Ownership Concentration and FDI," Working Papers Rutgers University, Newark 2010-003, Department of Economics, Rutgers University, Newark.
  4. Renucci, Antoine, 2008. "Access to financing, rents, and organization of the firm," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 337-346, September.
  5. Antoine Renucci, 2008. "Access to financing, rents, and organization of the firm," Post-Print halshs-00365983, HAL.
  6. Fumagalli, Elena & Garrone, Paola & Grilli, Luca, 2007. "Service quality in the electricity industry: The role of privatization and managerial behavior," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 6212-6224, December.

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