Nevertheless, divisional managers have an incentive to reduce the variability of divisional performance regardless of orther stakeholders' preferences. If each division manager hedges their exposure, there is neither a gain in expected cash flows nor a reduction in risk on the firm's zero net euro exposure. The cost of the offsetting hedges is a deadweight loss to the debt and equity stakeholders. If only one manager hedges, there is a loss from the cost of the hedge, as well as a new and, from the firm's point of view, undesirable exposure to currency risk from the hedge.
Management of Translation Exposure. Because management is judged on accounting (translation) exposure to currency risk ever if the exposure is purely an accounting artifact and is unrelated to operating cash flow or firm value. By reducing the variability of accounting income, managers can reduce the variability of their performance evaluations and personal wealth. Hedging translation exposure may or may not cause collateral damage to other stakeholders.
Hedging and the Shareholder-Manager Relationship
Shareholders and management are locked in a classic pricipal-agent relationship in which shareholders hire managers to run the firm on their behalf. In a world of incomplete and asymmetic information, it is costly or even impossible to fully observe management's performance on behalf of the shareholders. Even if a manager's performance could be observed, judging the value of that performance is problemetic. Successful managers could be merely lucky and unsuccessful managers merely unlucky.
Equity's challenge is to ensure that managers have appropriate incentives so that they act in other stakeholders' best interests. If a contract could be designed that aligned the objectives of managers and shareholders, managers would have no need to hedge on their own behalf. In the absence of such an optimal contract, management usually had an incentive to hedge. If hedging