Dependent Variables
LTIP adoption. A necessary and sufficient condition for
coding a firm as having adopted an LTIP is the adoption of a
new performance plan that is aimed at adding multiyear
performance incentives, such as performance shares or
performance units, to a CEO's compensation contract. If a
firm adopted a performance plan along with other long-term
incentive vehicles, we also considered it as having adopted
an LTIP. In a separate analysis, we examined whether the
empirical findings would be substantively changed if one
defined LTIP adoption as the introduction of only
performance plans, which represented 66 percent of all
adoptions in our sample. This reduced sample excluded
so-called "omnibus plans," representing 11 percent of all
adoptions, which give boards the right to grant any long-term
incentive vehicle; it also excluded LTIPs comprising
performance plans and one or more additional vehicles, such
as restricted stock, which represented 23 percent of all adoptions. We found that the empirical results were substantively unchanged.