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A Corporate Governance Reform as a Natural Experiment for Incentive Contracts

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Author Info
Christian Bayer (University of Dortmund)
Carsten Burhop (University of Münster)

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Abstract

The present paper proposes to employ a major shift in the legal and institutional environment to identify contractual incentives from the correlation of executive pay and firm performance. We use the reform of the German stock companies act in 1884 as such a major shift and estimate the sensitivity of the pay to firm performance between 1870 and 1910 for executives of nine large banks. The reform substantially enhanced corporate control and strengthened monitoring incentives. Accordingly, we find the pay-performance sensitivity to decrease significantly after the reform. While executives received a bonus of 39 M per 1000 M increase in profits before 1884, after the reform the sensitivity decreased by two-thirds.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Finance with number 0407002.

Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML (with abstract), plain text (with abstract), BibTeX, RIS (EndNote, RefMan, ProCite), ReDIF
Length: 23 pages
Date of creation: 05 Jul 2004
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Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpfi:0407002

Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 23
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Web page: http://129.3.20.41

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Related research
Keywords: pay-performance sensitivity; natural experiment; legal reform; corporate governance;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
J33 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
N23 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Europe: Pre-1913

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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  10. Holmstrom, Bengt, 1999. "Managerial Incentive Problems: A Dynamic Perspective," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 66(1), pages 169-82, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Christian Bayer & Carsten Burhop, 2005. "If only I could sack you! Management turnover and performance in large German Banks between 1874 and 1913," Economic History 0502006, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
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