Do common inherited beliefs and values influence CEO pay?

Atif Ellahie, Ahmed Tahoun and İrem Tuna

Journal of Accounting and Economics, 2017, vol. 64, issue 2, 346-367

Abstract: We use the ethnicity of CEOs across 31 countries as a proxy for their common inherited beliefs and values and find an ethnicity effect in CEO variable pay. We find that the ethnicity effect in variable pay is not driven by the ethnicity effects in corporate policy decisions, and that changes in CEO compensation are significantly larger when CEOs are replaced with a person from a different ethnicity. Our estimated ethnicity effect captures the future time reference and religion of CEOs’ ancestors. Finally, we find an ethnicity effect in performance-firing sensitivities (i.e., the sensitivity to being fired due to poor performance).

Keywords: Executive compensation; CEO characteristics; Ethnicity; Cultural persistence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G30 J15 J33 Z10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jaecon:v:64:y:2017:i:2:p:346-367

DOI: 10.1016/j.jacceco.2017.09.002

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