究称限制CEO任职年限能遏制天价薪酬减少股东损失

2014-07-10 18:04:11来源：可可英语

　　It’s pretty clear by now that many CEOs of public companies make more money than their performance warrants, and that boards of directors often ignore shareholders who complain about it. But how much does paying the chief executive officer more than he (or, rarely, she) is worth really cost stockholders?

　　现如今，相当明确的一点是，很多上市公司的CEO实际赚的钱比他们业绩确保他们可以赚的钱要多，而且，董事会常常忽视那些对此不满的股东。但给CEO支付比他(她，很少见)实际值得的薪酬高到底会对股东造成多大的损失?

　　Plenty, says a new study that examined CEO pay, stock price performance, and return on assets in a database of the 1,500 largest U.S. public companies for each year from 1994 to 2013. The 10 highest-paid CEOs in any given year presided over an average $1.4 billion loss in market capitalization, compared to their more modestly compensated peers.

　　一份新的研究对这个问题的回答是：损失惨重。这份研究逐年核查了从1994年至2013年间1,500家美国最大上市公司的CEO薪酬、股价表现和资产回报。其中的任何一年，相对于薪酬适中的同行，薪酬最高的10位CEO掌管的企业市值平均损失了14亿美元。

　　There’s more: Even if a given CEO made the top 10 for only one year, the stock lost value for three years afterward, compared to the shares of other companies in the same industry. And, if a company with a CEO in the top 10 made an acquisition or underwent a merger, “the market reacted more negatively,” pushing the share price down farther than for comparable deals made by lower paid CEOs, says Mike Cooper, a finance professor at the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah and a co-author of the study.

　　此外，即使其中某位特定的CEO的薪酬只有某一年入围过前10，随后的三年，这位CEO所在公司的股票价值都会相对同行业的其他公司股票出现下跌。而且，这份报告的联合执笔者、犹他大学(University of Utah)金融教授迈克o库伯还说，10位薪酬最高的CEO掌管的公司如果进行收购或合并，“市场反应更为负面”;相对于薪酬较低CEO的公司，股价下降幅度更大。

　　“We’re not saying that high CEO pay is necessarily bad,” he adds. “But we did find a clear link between high CEO pay and decreased financial performance.”

　　“我们并不是在说，CEO高薪必定是糟糕的事情，”他补充说。“但我们的确发现，CEO高薪与公司财务表现下降之间存在明确的关联。”

　　The main reason, Cooper says, is that extravagant pay gives rise to what the study calls “overconfidence,” or the belief that “you have better information and know more than everybody else,” which leads to a penchant for risk—making too many acquisitions, over-investing in dicey projects that usually fail, and generally spending too much of the company’s money.

　　库伯称，主要的问题是，如此奢侈的薪酬引发了这位研究所称的“自负”，或者“自认为掌握了更好的信息，比其他任何人懂得都多”这种信念，结果导致了对风险的癖好。具体表现为：大肆收购、过度投资通常会失败的风险项目，而且通常也会过多支出公司的资金。

　　“This is why the highest paid CEOs in any industry tend to do things that destroy shareholder wealth,” Cooper notes. A telltale sign of overconfidence, according to the study: chief executives with costly delusions of grandeur often hold “a larger number of in-the-money stock options that they haven’t exercised than other CEOs,” he says.

　　库伯指出，“为什么任何行业中最高薪的CEO们倾向于做出损害股东财富的事情?这就是原因。”据这份研究称，有一个迹象很能说明问题，反映CEO的过度自信：被壮丽前景假象所迷惑的CEO通常比其他CEO持有更多“尚未执行的大量低价期权,”

　　They’ve often been in the top job longer than their lower-paid peers, too. Cooper and his colleagues found the highest pay and the most overconfident behavior among chief executives who had been in office for an average of six years. “That’s not surprising,” Cooper notes. “The longer tenure means a CEO has had more of a chance to make friends with the board, or to put friends on it.”

　　而且，他们在任的时间也比薪酬低一些的同行要长。库伯和他的同事发现，获得最高薪酬和做出最自负行为的CEO平均任职期为6年。“这一点没什么可奇怪的，”库伯指出。“更长的任职时间意味着CEO可以有机会与董事会结交朋友，或者把朋友安插进董事会。”

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