IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/3255.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Merger Activity and Executive Pay

Author

Listed:
  • Wright, Peter
  • Thompson, Steve
  • Girma, Sourafel

Abstract

This Paper examines the impact of mergers and acquisitions on the remuneration of the CEOs in a large unbalanced panel of UK firms, over the period 1981-96. We find significant and substantial executive pay increases in excess of those generated by the growth in firm size consequent upon the merger. This is consistent with the view that mergers reveal information about the quality of management that is useful to the firm?s remuneration committee. Executive pay is, however, nine times more sensitive to internal growth than to growth as a result of acquisition. Furthermore, there is some evidence that hostile transactions generate smaller pay effects than friendly deals, probably because they are followed, at some remove, by size-reducing divestments. When mergers are distinguished by their impact on shareholder wealth we find that CEOs engaging in ?bad? (ie wealth-reducing) acquisitions experience significantly lower remuneration than their counterparts whose deals meet with market approval. This result suggests that shareholder-principals have at least some success in penalising managers for unwarranted empire-building mergers.

Suggested Citation

  • Wright, Peter & Thompson, Steve & Girma, Sourafel, 2002. "Merger Activity and Executive Pay," CEPR Discussion Papers 3255, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:3255
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP3255
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rosen, S., 1990. "Contracts and Market for Executives," University of Chicago - Economics Research Center 90-12, Chicago - Economics Research Center.
    2. Walter Y. Oi & Todd L. Idson, 1999. "Workers Are More Productive in Large Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 104-108, May.
    3. Haynes, Michelle & Thompson, Steve & Wright, Mike, 2003. "The determinants of corporate divestment: evidence from a panel of UK firms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 147-166, September.
    4. Main, Brian G M & Bruce, Alistair & Buck, Trevor, 1996. "Total Board Remuneration and Company Performance," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(439), pages 1627-1644, November.
    5. Vella, Francis & Verbeek, Marno, 1999. "Estimating and Interpreting Models with Endogenous Treatment Effects," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 17(4), pages 473-478, October.
    6. Conyon, Martin & Gregg, Paul & Machin, Stephen, 1995. "Taking Care of Business, Executive Compensation in the United Kingdom," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 105(430), pages 704-714, May.
    7. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    8. Paul Gregg & Stephen Machin & Stefan Szymanski, 1993. "The Disappearing Relationship Between Directors' Pay and Corporate Performance," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 31(1), pages 1-9, March.
    9. Brown, Charles & Medoff, James, 1989. "The Employer Size-Wage Effect," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1027-1059, October.
    10. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 1998. "Executive Compensation and Incentives: The Impact of Takeover Legislation," Working Papers 783, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    11. Bertrand, M. & Mullainathan, S., 1998. "Executive Compensation and Incentives: the Impact of Takeover Legislation," Papers 202, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
    12. Bliss, Richard T. & Rosen, Richard J., 2001. "CEO compensation and bank mergers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 107-138, July.
    13. Kole, Stacey R. & Lehn, Kenneth M., 1999. "Deregulation and the adaptation of governance structure: the case of the U.S. airline industry," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 79-117, April.
    14. Murphy, Kevin J., 1999. "Executive compensation," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 38, pages 2485-2563, Elsevier.
    15. Martin J Conyon & Paul Gregg, 1994. "Pay at the Top: A Study of the Sensitivity of Top Director Remuneration to Company Specific Shocks," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 149(1), pages 83-92, August.
    16. Avery, Christopher & Chevalier, Judith A & Schaefer, Scott, 1998. "Why Do Managers Undertake Acquisitions? An Analysis of Internal and External Rewards for Acquisitiveness," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 24-43, April.
    17. Heckman, James J, 1978. "Dummy Endogenous Variables in a Simultaneous Equation System," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(4), pages 931-959, July.
    18. Conyon, Martin J & Leech, Dennis, 1994. "Top Pay, Company Performance and Corporate Governance," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 56(3), pages 229-247, August.
    19. Anderson, T. W. & Hsiao, Cheng, 1982. "Formulation and estimation of dynamic models using panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 47-82, January.
    20. Agrawal, Anup & Walkling, Ralph A, 1994. "Executive Careers and Compensation Surrounding Takeover Bids," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(3), pages 985-1014, July.
    21. Conyon, Martin J. & Girma, Sourafel & Thompson, Steve & Wright, Peter W., 2001. "Do hostile mergers destroy jobs?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 427-440, August.
    22. Caves, Richard E., 1989. "Mergers, takeovers, and economic efficiency : Foresight vs. hindsight," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 151-174, March.
    23. Jensen, Michael C & Murphy, Kevin J, 1990. "Performance Pay and Top-Management Incentives," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(2), pages 225-264, April.
    24. Dickerson, Andrew P & Gibson, Heather D & Tsakalotos, Euclid, 1997. "The Impact of Acquisitions on Company Performance: Evidence from a Large Panel of UK Firms," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 49(3), pages 344-361, July.
    25. Sherwin Rosen, 1982. "Authority, Control, and the Distribution of Earnings," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 13(2), pages 311-323, Autumn.
    26. Boozer, Michael A., 1997. "Econometric Analysis of Panel DataBadi H. Baltagi Wiley, 1995," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(5), pages 747-754, October.
    27. Andrew P. Dickerson & Heather D. Gibson & Euclid Tsakalotos, 1997. "Deterring Takeover: Evidence from a Large Panel of UK Firms," Studies in Economics 9707, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    28. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    29. Conyon, Martin J., 1997. "Corporate governance and executive compensation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 493-509, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Renneboog, L.D.R. & Trojanowski, G., 2002. "The Managerial Labor Market and the Governance Role of Shareholder Control Structures in the UK," Other publications TiSEM aee04553-20a7-475a-96e1-7, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Steve Thompson, 2005. "The Impact of Corporate Governance Reforms on the Remuneration of Executives in the UK," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 19-25, January.
    3. Amzaleg, Yaron & Azar, Ofer H. & Ben-Zion, Uri & Rosenfeld, Ahron, 2014. "CEO control, corporate performance and pay-performance sensitivity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 166-174.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Agyei-Boapeah, Henry & Ntim, Collins G. & Fosu, Samuel, 2019. "Governance structures and the compensation of powerful corporate leaders in financial firms during M&As," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    2. Paul Gregg & Sarah Jewell & Ian Tonks, 2005. "Executive Pay and Performance in the UK 1994-2002," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 05/122, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.
    3. Michelle Haynes & Steve Thompson & Mike Wright, 2007. "Executive Remuneration and Corporate Divestment: Motivating Managers to Make Unpalatable Decisions," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(5‐6), pages 792-818, June.
    4. M. Ali Choudhary & J. Michael Orszag, 2003. "Are Performance Conditions On Executive Options Driven By Fundamentals?," School of Economics Discussion Papers 1103, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    5. Martin J. Conyon, 1995. "Directors' Pay in the Privatized Utilities," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 33(2), pages 159-171, June.
    6. Phillip McKnight & Cyril Tomkins, 1999. "Top Executive Pay in the United Kingdom: A Corporate Governance Dilemma," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(2), pages 223-243.
    7. Liu, Lisa Shifei & Stark, Andrew W., 2009. "Relative performance evaluation in board cash compensation: UK empirical evidence," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 21-30.
    8. Hristos Doucouliagos & Janto Haman & T.D. Stanley, 2012. "Pay for Performance and Corporate Governance Reform," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 670-703, July.
    9. Lucian Bebchuk & Yaniv Grinstein, 2005. "Firm Expansion and CEO Pay," NBER Working Papers 11886, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Paul M. Guest, 2009. "The Impact of Mergers and Acquisitions on Executive Pay in the United Kingdom," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(301), pages 149-175, February.
    11. Aggarwal, Rajesh K. & Samwick, Andrew A., 2006. "Empire-builders and shirkers: Investment, firm performance, and managerial incentives," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 489-515, June.
    12. Carola Frydman & Dirk Jenter, 2010. "CEO Compensation," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 75-102, December.
    13. Xavier Gabaix & Augustin Landier, 2008. "Why has CEO Pay Increased So Much?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(1), pages 49-100.
    14. Bushman, Robert M. & Smith, Abbie J., 2001. "Financial accounting information and corporate governance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-3), pages 237-333, December.
    15. Girma, Sourafel & Görg, Holger, 2001. "Blessing or Curse? Domestic Plants' Survival and Employment Prospects After Foreign Acquisition," CEPR Discussion Papers 2994, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Hristos Doucouliagos & Janto Haman & Saeed Askary, 2007. "Directors' Remuneration and Performance in Australian Banking," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(6), pages 1363-1383, November.
    17. Firth, M. & Tam, M. & Tang, M., 1999. "The determinants of top management pay," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 617-635, December.
    18. Vicente Cuñat & Maria Guadalupe, 2005. "How Does Product Market Competition Shape Incentive Contracts?," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 3(5), pages 1058-1082, September.
    19. Rafel Crespi-Cladera & Carles Gispert & Luc Renneboog, 2001. "Verringern Management-Entlohnungskosten die Agency-Kosten?: Empirische Evidenz von netzwerkorientierten und marktorientierten Unternehmenskontrollsystemen," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 70(2), pages 234-246.
    20. Eisfeldt, Andrea L. & Rampini, Adriano A., 2008. "Managerial incentives, capital reallocation, and the business cycle," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 177-199, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mergers; Acquisition; Executive pay;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:3255. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.