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Essays On Dividend Equivalent Rights And Ceo Compensation, Zi Jia

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation studies a little-known executive compensation device called dividend equivalent rights (DERs). DERs entitle an executive to receive dividends, known as dividend equivalents (DEs), on unearned performance-based stocks and options. In the first essay we do empirical studies on the market reaction of news about DERs and the incentives that DERs can bring. We find that about 22% of S&P500 firms allow for these payments and about 10% actually make such payments. While investors react negatively to announcements of DE payments, DERs can be beneficial to shareholders by inducing a company to disgorge unproductive cash. If a firm allows …