In closing this section, we note that caution should be used
in concluding from this recent shift away from explicit
accounting-based incentive plans toward equity-based plans
that accounting information has become less important for the
governance of firms. There are a number of issues to consider
in this regard. First, as discussed in our introduction and by a
number of other scholars (for example, Ball [2001] and Black
[2000]), the existence of a strong financial accounting regime is
likely a precondition for the existence of a vibrant stock market
and in its absence the notions of equity-based pay and diffuse
ownership of firms become moot.
Second, while executive wealth clearly has become more
highly dependent on stock price, managerial behavior is
impacted by executives’ and boards’ understanding of how
their decisions impact stock price. Under efficient markets
theory, stock price is a sufficient statistic for all available
information in the economy with respect to firm value, which
implies that stock price is a good mechanism for guiding
investors’ resource allocation decisions, as they only need to
look at price to get the market’s informed assessment of value.
But is stock price also a sufficient statistic for operating
decisions and performance assessments within firms? That is,
can managers and boards rely on stock price as their sole
information source? We observe analysts pouring over the
details of financial statements, such as margin analyses,
expense ratios, and geographic and product line segment data.
In addition, market participants expend real resources
privately collecting and trading on detailed firm-specific
information that is ultimately aggregated in price. Given that
market participants whose trading decisions drive stock price
formation are heavily influenced by detailed accounting and
other performance data, why should we believe that managers
and boards ignore the details and are guided solely by stock
price?
Lastly, stock price possesses other potential limitations as a
measure of current managerial performance. In particular, the
fact that stock price is forward-looking can limit its usefulness
because it anticipates possible future actions. For example,
when a firm is in trouble, its current stock price may reflect the
market’s expectation that the current CEO will soon be
replaced, thus limiting its usefulness in assessing the current
CEO’s performance. This may lead to reliance on accounting
measures, as documented in the literature on CEO dismissal
probabilities discussed in Section 3.1 (see also the discussion in
Section 3.4 on the role of accounting information in proxy
contests).