Pay and behaviour

I'm hugely grateful to a mate at an asset manager for bringing this paper (PDF) to my attention. It demonstrates that (as I had hoped) some investors are starting to think more deeply about what actual effects performance-related pay has in the boardroom. Basically the paper is a summary of loads of other academic papers that have appeared over the past three years, so lots of further reading...!

Another idea I've been kicking about is the way that cognitive/behavioural biases might affect the way that those making governance-related decisions on the investor side of the company-shareholder relationship. And wouldn't you know that somebody has already got there? This paper sounds really interesting:

Westphal & Bednar (2008) apply the idea of behavioural traits when examining how executives use certain patterns of behaviour to influence powerful institutional investors. The authors focus on how persuasion and ingratiation are used to prevent changes in corporate governance and strategy.

Sounds good dunnit?