IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/9784.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Trouble with Stock Options

Author

Listed:
  • Brian J. Hall
  • Kevin J. Murphy

Abstract

The trouble with options is that too many options are granted to too many people. Most options are granted below the top-executive level, and options are often an inefficient way to attract, retain and motivate executives and (especially) lower-level employees. Why, then, are options so prevalent? We discuss several explanations including changes in corporate governance, reporting requirements, taxes, the bull market and managerial rent-seeking. We also offer an alternative hypothesis that we believe explains the over-use of options and several apparent puzzles: boards and managers falsely perceive stock options to be inexpensive because of accounting and cash-flow considerations.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian J. Hall & Kevin J. Murphy, 2003. "The Trouble with Stock Options," NBER Working Papers 9784, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9784
    Note: CF LS PE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w9784.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Espahbodi, Hassan & Strock, Elizabeth & Tehranian, Hassan, 1991. "Impact on equity prices of pronouncements related to nonpension postretirement benefits," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 323-346, December.
    2. Aboody, David, 1996. "Market valuation of employee stock options," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1-3), pages 357-391, October.
    3. Lucian Arye Bebchuk & Jesse M. Fried, 2003. "Executive Compensation as an Agency Problem," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 71-92, Summer.
    4. Black, Fischer & Scholes, Myron S, 1973. "The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 637-654, May-June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Lin, Hsuan-Chu & Chou, Ting-Kai & Wang, Wen-Gine, 2012. "Capital structure and executive compensation contract design: A theoretical and empirical analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 209-224.
    2. Paul Oyer & Scott Schaefer, 2004. "Compensating Employees Below the Executive Ranks: A Comparison of Options, Restricted Stock, and Cash," NBER Working Papers 10221, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Merz, Alexander, 2017. "What have we learned from SFAS 123r and IFRS 2? A review of existing evidence and future research suggestions," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 14-33.
    4. Kim, Hohyun & Han, Seung Hun, 2018. "Compensation structure of family business groups," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 376-391.
    5. Yaowen Shan & Terry Walter, 2016. "Towards a Set of Design Principles for Executive Compensation Contracts," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 52(4), pages 619-684, December.
    6. Abdelaziz Elmarzougui, 2006. "Evolution et sensibilité des stock-options : cas du marché français," Working Papers hal-04138526, HAL.
    7. Kevin F. Hallock & Craig A. Olson, 2010. "New Data for Answering Old Questions Regarding Employee Stock Options," NBER Chapters, in: Labor in the New Economy, pages 149-180, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Wolfgang Drobetz & Pascal Pensa & Markus M. Schmid, 2007. "Estimating the Cost of Executive Stock Options: evidence from Switzerland," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 798-815, September.
    9. Kuang, Y. & Qin, B., 2006. "Performance-vested Stock Options and Pay-Performance Sensitivity," Other publications TiSEM 13484e72-b9cf-4c3a-8fc5-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    10. Leon Zolotoy & Don O’Sullivan & Geoffrey P. Martin, 2022. "Behavioural Agency and Firm Productivity: Revisiting the Incentive Alignment Qualities of Stock Options," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(7), pages 1756-1787, November.
    11. Dai, Yunhao & Rau, P. Raghavendra & Stouraitis, Aris & Tan, Weiqiang, 2020. "An ill wind? Terrorist attacks and CEO compensation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 379-398.
    12. Chii-Shyan Kuo & Xu Wang & Shih-Ti Yu, 2016. "Investor perception of managerial discretion in valuing stock options: an empirical examination," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 733-773, October.
    13. Kapil Sharma, 2006. "Understanding Employee Stock Options," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 7(1), pages 77-93, February.
    14. Kuang, Y. & Qin, B., 2006. "Performance-vested Stock Options and Pay-Performance Sensitivity," Discussion Paper 2006-123, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    15. Min Jung Kang & Andy (Y. Han) Kim, 2017. "Bankers on the Board and CEO Incentives," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 23(2), pages 292-324, March.
    16. Jeff Boone & Inder Khurana & K. Raman, 2011. "Investor pricing of CEO equity incentives," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 417-435, April.
    17. 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.
    18. Aurélien Eminet & Zied Guedri & Stefan Asseman, 2009. "Le dirigeant est-il l’architecte de sa rémunération? Structure de contrôle du conseil d’administration et mobilisation du capital social," Revue Finance Contrôle Stratégie, revues.org, vol. 12(3), pages 5-36, September.
    19. Giorgio Canarella & Mahmoud M. Nourayi, 2008. "Executive compensation and firm performance: adjustment dynamics, non-linearity and asymmetry," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 293-315.
    20. Miao-Ling Chen, 2007. "Incentive and Dilution Effects of Employee Stock Bonuses and Stock Options: Evidence from Taiwan," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 65-73.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J0 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

    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:nbr:nberwo:9784. 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://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.