Executive Compensation and Deployment of Corporate Resources: Evidence from Working Capital
43 Pages Posted: 10 Oct 2015 Last revised: 22 May 2020
Date Written: May 22, 2020
Abstract
Firms provide compensation incentives to executives, primarily in the form of bonus payments, to alleviate slack in the deployment of corporate resources to working capital. Financially constrained firms are heavy users of working capital incentives. So are firms that are less exposed to external takeover threats. Among the different components of working capital, inventories and payables are the main drivers of executive bonuses. Overall, our evidence supports the optimal contracting view of bonus payments in executive compensation.
Keywords: working capital, bonus payment, executive compensation, financial constraint
JEL Classification: G30, G31, J33
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation