IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/corfin/v14y2008i5p499-511.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

You can't take it with you: Sunset provisions for equity compensation when managers retire, resign, or die

Author

Listed:
  • Dahiya, Sandeep
  • Yermack, David

Abstract

Company stock option plans have diverse "sunset" policies for modifying terms of options held by managers who exit the firm. In our S&P 500 sample, these forfeiture, vesting, and expiration provisions are less generous in companies characterized by fast growth, dependence on skilled human capital, and high strategic interaction with competitors. While these results apply for workers who retire at the end of their careers, almost no variation exists in the treatment of workers who resign with the possibility of working elsewhere. For CEOs over age 60, companies' sunset rules imply large discounts to option award values and estimates of total compensation.

Suggested Citation

  • Dahiya, Sandeep & Yermack, David, 2008. "You can't take it with you: Sunset provisions for equity compensation when managers retire, resign, or die," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 499-511, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:14:y:2008:i:5:p:499-511
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929-1199(08)00076-X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Smith, Clifford Jr. & Watts, Ross L., 1992. "The investment opportunity set and corporate financing, dividend, and compensation policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 263-292, December.
    2. Fee, C. Edward & Hadlock, Charles J., 2004. "Management turnover across the corporate hierarchy," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 3-38, February.
    3. Coughlan, Anne T. & Schmidt, Ronald M., 1985. "Executive compensation, management turnover, and firm performance : An empirical investigation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 7(1-3), pages 43-66, April.
    4. Mark A. Chen, 2004. "Executive Option Repricing, Incentives, and Retention," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(3), pages 1167-1200, June.
    5. Dechow, Patricia M. & Sloan, Richard G., 1991. "Executive incentives and the horizon problem : An empirical investigation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 51-89, March.
    6. Yermack, David, 2006. "Golden handshakes: Separation pay for retired and dismissed CEOs," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 237-256, September.
    7. Carpenter, Jennifer N., 1998. "The exercise and valuation of executive stock options," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 127-158, May.
    8. Pasternack, Daniel & Rosenberg, Matts, 2003. "What Determines Stock Option Contract Design?," Working Papers 498, Hanken School of Economics.
    9. Huson, Mark R. & Malatesta, Paul H. & Parrino, Robert, 2004. "Managerial succession and firm performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 237-275, November.
    10. Jeremy Bulow & John B. Shoven, 2005. "Accounting for Stock Options," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(4), pages 115-134, Fall.
    11. Murphy, Kevin J. & Zimmerman, Jerold L., 1993. "Financial performance surrounding CEO turnover," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1-3), pages 273-315, April.
    12. Hayes, Rachel M. & Schaefer, Scott, 1999. "How much are differences in managerial ability worth?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 125-148, April.
    13. Rangarajan K. Sundaram & David L. Yermack, 2007. "Pay Me Later: Inside Debt and Its Role in Managerial Compensation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 62(4), pages 1551-1588, August.
    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. Peng, Qiyuan & Yin, Sirui, 2021. "Does the executive labor market discipline? Labor market incentives and earnings management," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 62-86.
    2. Srivastav, Abhishek & Keasey, Kevin & Mollah, Sabur & Vallascas, Francesco, 2017. "CEO turnover in large banks: Does tail risk matter?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 37-55.
    3. Florian S. Peters & Alexander F. Wagner, 2014. "The Executive Turnover Risk Premium," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(4), pages 1529-1563, August.
    4. Gabaix, Xavier & Sannikov, Yuliy & Edmans, Alex & Sadzik, Tomasz, 2009. "Dynamic Incentive Accounts," CEPR Discussion Papers 7497, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Cziraki, Peter & Xu, Moqi, 2014. "CEO job security and risk-taking," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 55909, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Denton Collins & Gary Fleischman & Stacey Kaden & Juan Manuel Sanchez, 2018. "How Powerful CFOs Camouflage and Exploit Equity-Based Incentive Compensation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(2), pages 591-613, December.
    7. Doukas, John A. & Zhang, Rongyao, 2020. "Corporate managerial ability, earnings smoothing, and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    8. Liljeblom, Eva & Pasternack, Daniel & Rosenberg, Matts, 2011. "What determines stock option contract design?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(2), pages 293-316.
    9. Izhakian, Yehuda & Yermack, David, 2017. "Risk, ambiguity, and the exercise of employee stock options," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(1), pages 65-85.
    10. Bang Dang Nguyen & Kasper Meisner Nielsen, 2014. "What Death Can Tell: Are Executives Paid for Their Contributions to Firm Value?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(12), pages 2994-3010, December.
    11. Klein, Daniel, 2018. "Executive turnover and the valuation of stock options," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 76-93.
    12. Peter Cziraki & Moqi Xu, 2014. "Ceo Job Security And Risk-Taking," FMG Discussion Papers dp729, Financial Markets Group.
    13. Cziraki, P., 2012. "Insider trading, shareholder activism, and corporate policies," Other publications TiSEM f54b4af1-7cb1-401f-a44a-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    14. Azevedo, Alcino & Pereira, Paulo J. & Rodrigues, Artur, 2018. "Non-compete covenants, litigation and garden leaves," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 197-211.

    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. Carola Frydman & Dirk Jenter, 2010. "CEO Compensation," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 75-102, December.
    2. repec:oup:rfinst:v:21:y:2017:i:5:p:1805-1846. is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Ingolf Dittmann & Ko-Chia Yu & Dan Zhang, 2017. "How Important Are Risk-Taking Incentives in Executive Compensation?," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 21(5), pages 1805-1846.
    4. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2485-2563 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Sabac, Florin, 2008. "Dynamic incentives and retirement," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 172-200, September.
    6. Eckbo, B. Espen & Thorburn, Karin S. & Wang, Wei, 2016. "How costly is corporate bankruptcy for the CEO?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 210-229.
    7. John Harry Evans & Nandu J. Nagarajan & Jason D. Schloetzer, 2010. "CEO Turnover and Retention Light: Retaining Former CEOs on the Board," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(5), pages 1015-1047, December.
    8. Isabelle Allemand, 2009. "Analyse des liens entre les départs de dirigeants suite à une mauvaise performance et la création de valeur: une étude menée en France," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 12(2), pages 69-90, June.
    9. Fee, C. Edward & Hadlock, Charles J. & Pierce, Joshua R., 2018. "New evidence on managerial labor markets: An analysis of CEO retreads," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 428-441.
    10. David Blackwell & Donna Dudney & Kathleen Farrell, 2007. "Changes in CEO compensation structure and the impact on firm performance following CEO turnover," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 315-338, October.
    11. Cools, Kees & Mirjam van Praag, C., 2007. "The value relevance of top executive departures: Evidence from the Netherlands," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 721-742, December.
    12. Chakraborty, Atreya & Sheikh, Shahbaz & Subramanian, Narayanan, 2007. "Termination risk and managerial risk taking," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 170-188, March.
    13. Chakraborty, Atreya & Sheikh, Shahbaz & Subramanian, Narayanan, 2009. "The relationship between incentive compensation and performance related CEO turnover," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 61(4), pages 295-311, July.
    14. Steven Balsam & So Yean Kwack, 2022. "The impact of connections between the CEO and top executives on appointment, turnover and firm value," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(5-6), pages 882-933, May.
    15. DeFond, Mark L. & Park, Chul W., 1999. "The effect of competition on CEO turnover1," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 35-56, February.
    16. Carlos Jiménez-Angueira & Nathan Stuart, 2015. "Relative performance evaluation, pay-for-luck, and double-dipping in CEO compensation," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 701-732, May.
    17. Paul André, 2009. "Discussion of Firm Performance and Managerial Succession in Family Managed Firms," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3‐4), pages 485-495, April.
    18. Hadem, Michael, 2010. "Bedingungen und Konsequenzen des Wechsels von Finanzvorständen - Eine Analyse in großen börsennotierten Unternehmen," EconStor Theses, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, number 43681, October.
    19. Muurling, Rutger & Lehnert, Thorsten, 2004. "Option-based compensation: a survey," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 365-401.
    20. Baber, William R. & Kang, Sok-Hyon & Kumar, Krishna R., 1998. "Accounting earnings and executive compensation:: The role of earnings persistence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 169-193, May.
    21. Kind, Axel & Schläpfer, Yves, 2011. "Are forced CEO turnovers good or bad news?," Working papers 2011/10, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    22. Nadide BANU OLCAY GÜNER, 2023. "Incentivizing CEOs via pay and forced turnover: Do tenure and managerial ability matter?," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(1(634), S), pages 37-66, Spring.

    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:eee:corfin:v:14:y:2008:i:5:p:499-511. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcorpfin .

    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.