Abstract:
This paper examines CEO compensation and turnover in eight countries (including Australia, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and United Kingdom) from 2000 to 2013 period and focuses on how legal investor protection affects compensation and replacement decisions. I use logistic regressions to investigate the association between investor protection and pay-performance sensitivity, and the association between investor protection and turnover-performance sensitivity. My empirical analysis documents that in firms with stronger investor protection, CEO cash compensation and turnover are more sensitive to accounting performance. And such an effect of investor protection is more pronounced for firms with low level of earnings management. However, the association between investor protection and the CEO pay-performance relationship is weaker after including equity-based compensation.