RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
CEO Pay and Performance
The standard approach to executive compensation is the
principal agent model (Holmstrom, 1979; Jensen & Meckling,
1976; Mirrlees, 1976). Agency theory predicts that CEO
pay should be linked to performance in order to solve moral
hazard problems associated with the asymmetric information
between owners and managers. Shareholders can only
imperfectly observe the actions of agents, or do so at very
high cost. As a result, they design compensation contracts
that motivate the CEO to take the right actions of his or her
own volition. Therefore, rewarding executives based on firm
performance becomes a central issue in the design of executive
compensation contracts.