0000000000230119
AUTHOR
Clas Wihlborg
Exchange Rate and Macroeconomic Fluctuations as Sources of Luck in CEO Compensation
Exchange rate and other macroeconomic fluctuations can be considered sources of good or bad “luck” for corporate performance. Incentive effects of performance-based compensation for management may be weakened or biased by macroeconomic influences on remuneration depending on the ability of management to adjust operations. We decompose the changes in CEO-compensation to distinguish between (anticipated-and unanticipated) macroeconomic and “intrinsic” sources. Total US CEO-compensation is measured both including options awarded and options exercised. Both depend strongly on variations in macro-factors but the time patterns differ. Allowing for asymmetric effects on compensation we find that c…
Macroeconomic Fluctuations as a Source of Luck in CEO Compensation
Macroeconomic fluctuations such as interest rate and exchange rate can be considered sources of good or bad “luck” for corporate performance. Incentive effects of performance-based compensation for management may be weakened or biased by macroeconomic influences depending on the ability of management to adjust for operations. We decompose the impacts on CEO compensation to distinguish between macroeconomic (anticipated and unanticipated) and “intrinsic” sources. Total CEO compensation is measured by including options awarded or options exercised. Both measures depend strongly on variations in macro factors but the time patterns differ. The macroeconomic factors increased total awarded compe…
The CFO’s Information Challenge in Managing Macroeconomic Risk
In this paper we examine the role of the CFO in setting risk management strategy with respect to macroeconomic risk, in particular, and we consider the information requirements for setting a strategy that is consistent with corporate objectives. We argue that macroeconomic risk management requires a broad approach encompassing financial, operational and strategic considerations. Furthermore, several interdependent sources of risk in the macroeconomic environment must be taken into account. Once this interdependence among, for example, exchange rates, interest rates and inflation are taken into account macroeconomic risk management can be considered a relatively self-contained aspect of Inte…
How to Avoid Compensating CEO for Luck: The Case of Macroeconomic Fluctuations
Incentive effects of performance-based compensation schemes for management may be weakened or biased by macroeconomic influences on remuneration. These influences can be seen as reflecting luck from the CEO’s perspective. In this chapter we present a model for how to avoid compensating CEO for luck by filtering out the macroeconomic influences. In the empirical section we analyze the impact of macroeconomic, industry and firm-specific factors on the compensations (salary, bonus, options, and pensions) of CEOs in 127 Swedish corporations during the period 2001-2007. We find macroeconomic influences on Swedish CEOs’ compensation to be substantial. Distinguishing between favorable and unfavora…
Corporate Distress and Restructuring with Macroeconomic Fluctuations: The Cases of GM and Ford
Traditional methods for evaluating corporate credit risk rarely consider the impact of the macro economy on corporate value and performance. We argue that lenders and management can obtain valuable information about the need for and approach to restructuring by decomposing default predictions into intrinsic and macroeconomic factors. We apply a method previously used for measuring macroeconomic exposures on default predictions in order to filter out macroeconomic factors. In this paper the method is applied on an analysis of the Z-scores for GM and Ford for the period 1996-2005. The macro-economy has affected the two firms in different ways with implications for managements and creditors ap…
Executive Compensation and Macroeconomic Fluctuations
Macroeconomic fluctuations affect corporations' performance through demand and cost conditions. Incentive effects of performance-based compensation schemes for management may be weakened or biased by macroeconomic influences if management is unable to forecast macroeconomic fluctuations or unable to adjust operations in response to changes in macroeconomic conditions. In this paper we analyze the impact of macroeconomic, industry and firm-specific factors on salaries and bonus of CEOs in 131 Swedish corporations during the period 2001-2006. A distinction is made between anticipated and unanticipated macroeconomic fluctuations. The macroeconomic influences on performance and compensation can…
Asymmetry of CEO Compensation and the Role of Relative and Macroeconomic Shocks in Risk Taking Incentives
If managers are risk-averse and compensation schemes are not directly linked to shareholder wealth, incentives to allocate effort to manage effects of relative and macroeconomic shocks may be distorted. In this paper we develop a simple model to identify factors that determine the optimal allocation of effort to manage relative and macroeconomic shocks. We then show how serial correlation in shocks, the relative variance of shocks and the ability of managers to influence the effects of shocks on shareholder wealth determine the optimal allocation of managerial effort. Thereafter, we emphasize how CEO compensation depends on performance variables distinguishing between relative and macroecon…