Abowd, John M. <br/><br/>
Does Performance-Based Managerial Compensation Affect Subsequent Corporate Performance? / 
John M. Abowd. 
 - Cambridge, Mass.  National Bureau of Economic Research  1989. 
 - 1 online resource:  illustrations (black and white); 
 - NBER working paper series  no. w3149 .
 - Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research)  no. w3149. .
<br/><br/> October 1989. 
<br/><br/> An effective performance-based compensation system must increase the probability of high performance corporate outcomes in order to justify the incremental expense relative to a straight salary system. A positive relation between current performance and current compensation indicates that the pay system is performance-based in practice, if not explicitly. This study considers whether increasing the sensitivity of current compensation to current performance is associated with higher performance in the future. For accounting-based performance measures, there is only weak evidence that greater performance-based compensation is associated with improved future performance. However, for economic and market performance measures, there is stronger evidence. Payment of an incremental 10% bonus for good economic performance is associated with a 30 to 90 basis point increase in the expected after tax gross economic return in the following fiscal year. Payment of an incremental raise of 10' following a good stock market performance is associated with a 400 to 1200 basis point increase in expected total shareholder return. These results are comparable in magnitude when compared to the intrinsic variability of the performance measure considered. 
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