AN NBER PUBLICATION
ISSUE: No. 1998, December 1998
The Digest
A free monthly publication featuring non-technical summaries of research on topics of broad public interest
If CEO stock holdings were replaced with the same ex ante value of stock options, the pay-to-performance sensitivity for the typical CEO would approximately double.
CEOs of the largest U.S. companies now receive annual stock option awards that are larger on average than their salaries and bonuses combined. In contrast, in 1980 the average stock option grant represented less than 20 percent of direct pay and the median stock option grant was zero. The increase in these...
Article
...employment rates for disabled men in all age categories, and disabled women under the age of 40, fell sharply after the ADA. This decline represents a clear break from past trends for both disabled and non-disabled workers, and therefore seems likely to have been caused by the ADA.
In Consequences of Employment Protection? The Case of The Americans With Disabilities Act (NBER Working Paper No. 6670) , co-authors Daron Acemoglu and Joshua Angrist ask whether the ADA...
Article
The wealth of the median households of those aged 50 to 60 in 1992 would finance an annuity equal to 79 percent of their final year's earnings, while still guaranteeing a surviving spouse two thirds of the basic benefit.
Some economists suggest that pensions do not add to "retirement wealth"-- which includes the value of private pensions, Social Security, homes, and other assets -- because, for a variety of reasons, higher pension values are offset by reducing saving held...
Article
...minimum wages reduce training aimed at improving skills on the current job, especially formal training.
The minimum wage is always politically controversial. Little wonder a cottage industry has sprung up in recent years examining the economic consequences of the minimum wage. Does a minimum wage harm the low-skill workers it's supposed to benefit? Or, is the minimum wage a savvy policy for raising the rewards to work?
While the economic research has focused...