Is Pay a Matter of Values?

49 Pages Posted: 11 Jan 2010 Last revised: 23 Jul 2012

See all articles by Renee B. Adams

Renee B. Adams

University of Oxford

Mariassunta Giannetti

Stockholm School of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI); Swedish House of Finance

Date Written: February 2012

Abstract

Public outrage over executive compensation reached an all time high during the financial crisis. Around the world, many argued that CEOs and boards were immoral in setting their pay and pressured governments to impose restrictions on executive pay. Using a unique sample of data on human values for CEOs, we show that CEOs and directors have different values than general members of the population. CEOs and directors place more emphasis on power and achievement values than members of the population and they emphasize self-direction values more. However, values appear to have little explanatory power for pay, in contrast to economic variables. While some CEOs may be unethical in setting their pay, our results suggest that pay is not a matter of values on average.

Keywords: Executive compensation, internal firm governance, labor market, culture

JEL Classification: G3, J33

Suggested Citation

Adams, Renée B. and Giannetti, Mariassunta, Is Pay a Matter of Values? (February 2012). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1534566 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1534566

Renée B. Adams

University of Oxford ( email )

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Oxford, OX1 1HP
Great Britain

Mariassunta Giannetti (Contact Author)

Stockholm School of Economics ( email )

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+46 8 312 327 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://sites.google.com/site/mariassuntagiannetti/Home

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

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European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )

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Belgium

HOME PAGE: http://www.ecgi.org

Swedish House of Finance ( email )

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