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Pay-performance sensitivity and firm size: Insights from the mutual fund industry

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  • Cashman, George D.
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    Abstract

    I examine the ex ante decision to make an agent's pay-performance sensitivity an inverse function of organization size. I focus on mutual funds and their decision to use compensation contracts that reduce the advisor's marginal compensation as the fund grows (a declining-rate contract) over the dominant contract type, where marginal compensation is unrelated to fund size (a single-rate contract). I find evidence consistent with the view that declining-rate contracts are a mechanism to keep marginal compensation in line with the advisor's declining marginal product. Specifically, I find that funds with greater exposure to diseconomies of scale are more likely to use a declining-rate contract and to specify a greater amount of compensation decline in their contracts. Consistent with optimal contracting, I find no evidence of a performance difference between funds with declining-rate contracts and funds with single-rate contracts.

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    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929-1199(10)00028-3
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    Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of Corporate Finance.

    Volume (Year): 16 (2010)
    Issue (Month): 4 (September)
    Pages: 400-412

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    Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:16:y:2010:i:4:p:400-412
    Contact details of provider: Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcorpfin

    Keywords: Compensation Pay-performance sensitivity Mutual funds;

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    Cited by:

    1. Yang, Tianna & Hou, Wenxuan, 2016. "Pay-performance sensitivity and risk-taking behaviors: Evidence from closed-end funds," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 274-288.
    2. Cashman, George D., 2012. "Convenience in the mutual fund industry," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 1326-1336.

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