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Executive Remuneration

Executive Remuneration is clearly a topic of enormous importance and one that fills the headlines of newspapers every day these days. It is a quintessential corporate governance issue about which there are many different views and opinions. In this new section of the ECGI website, we set out some of the arguments and provide links to academic and other material that can shed light on the debate.
The ECGI itself does not take a position on these matters. Rather, the purpose of the Institute is to generate research, stimulate debate and disseminate best practice. In these pages therefore, you will find links to proprietary ECGI research and other references to material on this important topic. They are continuously developed as new information becomes available.

Any comments and suggestions for additional links and references are very welcome.

Debate: “This House believes that company top executives should be paid like government ministers”
At the ECGI's fourth General Assembly which took place on Thursday 9 March 2006 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, there was an Oxford Union-style debate on the motion “This House believes that company top executives should be paid like government ministers”. The motion was defeated by a majority of 60 to 21. The debate can now viewed from this website. Click here to view
Commission Consultation and Recommendations

European Commission consultation on directors' remuneration February 2004

Results of the Commission's consultation on directors’ remuneration 15 June 2004
Commission Recommendation (Provisional text) 6 October 2004
ECGI Research
ECGI Research: Executive Remuneration in the EU: Comparative Law and Practice
ECGI Working Papers
Private Law Enforcement in a Formalist Legal Environment: The Italian Sai-Fondiaria Case Paolo Giudici, Free University of Bozen, Bolzano and ECGI (ECGI Law Series 094/2008) February 2008
Corporate Governance Externalities Viral Acharya, London Business School and CEPR, Paolo Volpin, London Business School, CEPR and ECGI. (ECGI Finance Series 195/2008) November 2007
Sticks or Carrots? Optimal CEO Compensation when Managers are Loss-Averse Ingolf Dittmann, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Ernst Maug, University of Mannheim and ECGI, Oliver Spalt, University of Mannheim (ECGI Finance Series 193/2007) November 2007
Serial CEO Incentives and the Structure of Managerial Contracts Mariassunta Giannetti, Stockholm School of Economics, CEPR and ECGI. (ECGI Finance Series 183/2007) October 2005
Private Litigation to Enforce Fiduciary Duties in Mutual Funds: Derivative Suits, Disinterested Directors and the Ideology of Investor Sovereignty Donald Langevoort, Georgetown University Law Center (ECGI Law Series 061/2006) February 2006
European Company Law and Corporate Governance: Where Does the Action Plan of the European Commission Lead? Klaus Hopt, Max Planck Institute for Private Law and ECGI (ECGI Law Series 052/2005) October 2005
Board Compensation and Firm Performance: The Role of 'Independent' Board Members Nuno Fernandes, School of Economics and Management, Universidade Católica Portuguesa and ECGI (ECGI Finance Series 104/2005) October 2005
Executive Compensation: If There's a Problem, What's the Remedy? The Case for 'Compensation Disclosure and Analysis' Jeffrey Gordon, Columbia Law School and European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) (ECGI Law Series 035/2005) April 2005
Executive Remuneration in the EU: The Context for Reform Guido Ferrarini, University of Genoa and ECGI and Niamh Moloney, University of Nottingham and ECGI (ECGI Law Series 032/2005) April 2005
Pay for Short-Term Performance: Executive Compensation in Speculative Markets Patrick Bolton, Princeton University, CEPR, ECGI and NBER, José Scheinkman, Princeton University and Wei Xiong, Princeton University and MBER (ECGI Finance Series 079/2005) April 2005
On-Going Board Reforms: One-Size-Fits-All and Regulatory Capture Gérard Hertig, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology(ETH Zurich)and ECGI (ECGI Law Series 025/2005) March 2005
Gender Diversity in the Boardroom Renée Adams, Stockholm School of Economics and ECGI, and Daniel Ferreira, Stockholm School of Economics and ECGI (ECGI Finance Series 057/2004) August 2004
Capital structure and managerial compensation: the effects of remuneration seniority Riccardo Calcagno, Tilburg University and Luc Renneboog, Tilburg University and ECGI (ECGI Finance Series 047/2004) September 2004
Remuneration: Where We've Been, How We Got to Here, What are the Problems, and How to Fix Them Michael Jensen, Harvard Business School, Kevin Murphy, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California and Eric Wruck, Econalytics (ECGI Finance Series 044/2004) July 2004
The Poison Pill In Japan: The Missing Infrastructure Ronald Gilson, Stanford Law School; Columbia Law School (ECGI Law Series 020/2004) January 2004
Lower Salaries and No Options: The Optimal Structure of Executive Pay Ingolf Dittmann, Humboldt University of Berlin and Ernst Maug, Humboldt University of Berlin and ECGI (ECGI Finance Series 032/2003) November 2003 (revised April 2004)
The State of U.S. Corporate Governance: What's Right and What's Wrong? Bengt Holmström, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), NBER and ECGI and Steven Kaplan, University of Chicago and NBER (ECGI Finance Series 023/2003) September 2003
Executive Remuneration in the EU: Comparative Law and Practice Guido Ferrarini, Università degli Studi di Genova-Law School, Niamh Moloney, Queen's University Belfast-School of Law and ECGI and Cristina Vespro, Universite Libre de Bruxelles and ECGI (ECGI Law Series 009/2003) June 2003
The Managerial labor market and the governance role of shareholder control structures in the UK Luc Renneboog, Tilburg University and ECGI, and Grzegorz Trojanowski, Tilburg University (ECGI Finance Series 016/2003) March 2003
Corporate Governance and Control Marco Becht, ECGI European Corporate Governance Institute, Patrick Bolton, Princeton University - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and Ailsa Roell, Princeton University - Department of Economics (ECGI Finance Series 002/2002) Revised August 2005
Other papers
Executive Compensation as an Agency Problem by Lucian Arye Bebchuk and Jesse Fried
Pay without Performance: The Unfulfilled Promise of Executive Compensation by Lucian Bebchuk and Jesse Fried
Paper: Governance Matters: Convergence in Law and Practice across the EU Executive Pay Faultline by Guido Ferrarini, Università degli Studi di Genova - Law School & ECGI, Niamh Moloney, Queen's University Belfast School of Law & ECGI and Cristina Vespro, ECARES, Université Libre de Bruxelles & ECGI, forthcoming in The Journal of Corporate Law Studies, n. 2, 2004