Stock option compensation and equity values

I present a model where increasing employee participation in a stock option scheme leads to higher performance but with a cost to shareholders. I show that firms with higher market values per employee are more likely to have an option scheme and they offer stock options to a broader group of employees. The model yields empirical predictions that are consistent with the stock option boom of the late 1990s and their reduced popularity after the stock market decline.compensation

Firm and Employee Effects of an Enterprise Information System: Micro-econometric Evidence

We investigate the impact of adopting an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system on performance changes and employee outcomes in a retail chain. We find that: (i) sales and inventory turnover initially drop by 7 % and recover in 6-12 months; (ii) inventory turnover recovers more quickly for establishments that adopt ERP later; (iii) employee outcomes, including increased workload, greater job difficulty and enhanced multitasking, vary significantly over time, though implications for employee welfare are ambiguous.enterprise resource planning; retailing; Finland; IT

Choice of Ownership Structure and Firm Performance: Evidence from Estonia

In this paper we use rich panel data for a representative sample of Estonian enterprises to analyse diverse issues related to the determinants of ownership structures and ownership changes after privatisation. A key focus is to determine whether ownership changes are related to economic efficiency. While employee owned firms are found to be much more prone than other firms to switch ownership categories, often “employee owned” firms remain “insider-owned” as ownership passes from current employees to managers and former employees. Logit analyses of the determinants of ownership structures and ownership changes provides mixed support for several hypotheses. As predicted: (i) wealth and resource constraints play a crucial role in the determination of ownership, with foreigners buying firms with the highest equity levels and insiders buying firms with the lowest equity valuations; (ii) risk aversion explains subsequent ownership changes, especially away from employee ownership; (iii) allocation of ownership depends on the pre-privatisation origin and location of the firm, and these factors also influence subsequent ownership changes. Finally we compare our findings with those achieved by using more conventional approaches to analyze efficiency that use very similar data. Reassuringly the evidence presented in this paper is consistent with the view that efficiency considerations drive ownership changes (while earlier analysis for Estonia and for many other transition economies has identified the impact of ownership on economic performance.) However, the findings in this paper also establish that there are important influences besides economic efficiency that affect enterprise ownership and ownership changes.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39945/3/wp560.pd

Choice of ownership structure and firm performance: Evidence from Estonia

In this paper we use rich panel data for a representative sample of Estonian enterprises to analyse diverse issues related to the determinants of ownership structures and ownership changes after privatisation. A key focus is to determine whether ownership changes are related to economic efficiency. While employee owned firms are found to be much more prone than other firms to switch ownership categories, often “employee owned” firms remain “insider-owned” as ownership passes from current employees to managers and former employees. Logit analyses of the determinants of ownership structures and ownership changes provides mixed support for several hypotheses. As predicted: (i) wealth and resource constraints play a crucial role in the determination of ownership, with foreigners buying firms with the highest equity levels and insiders buying firms with the lowest equity valuations; (ii) risk aversion explains subsequent ownership changes, especially away from employee ownership; (iii) allocation of ownership depends on the pre- privatisation origin and location of the firm, and these factors also influence subsequent ownership changes. Finally we compare our findings with those achieved by using more conventional approaches to analyze efficiency that use very similar data. Reassuringly the evidence presented in this paper is consistent with the view that efficiency considerations drive ownership changes (while earlier analysis for Estonia and for many other transition economies has identified the impact of ownership on economic performance.) However, the findings in this paper also establish that there are important influences besides economic efficiency that affect enterprise ownership and ownership changes.Privatisation, ownership change, employee ownership, transition economies, Estonia

Choice of Ownership Structure and Firm Performance: Evidence from Estonia

In this paper we use rich panel data for a representative sample of Estonian enterprises to analyse diverse issues related to the determinants of ownership structures and ownership changes after privatisation. A key focus is to determine whether ownership changes are related to economic efficiency. While employee owned firms are found to be much more prone than other firms to switch ownership categories, often “employee owned” firms remain “insider-owned” as ownership passes from current employees to managers and former employees. Logit analyses of the determinants of ownership structures and ownership changes provides mixed support for several hypotheses. As predicted: (i) wealth and resource constraints play a crucial role in the determination of ownership, with foreigners buying firms with the highest equity levels and insiders buying firms with the lowest equity valuations; (ii) risk aversion explains subsequent ownership changes, especially away from employee ownership; (iii) allocation of ownership depends on the pre-privatisation origin and location of the firm, and these factors also influence subsequent ownership changes. Finally we compare our findings with those achieved by using more conventional approaches to analyze efficiency that use very similar data. Reassuringly the evidence presented in this paper is consistent with the view that efficiency considerations drive ownership changes (while earlier analysis for Estonia and for many other transition economies has identified the impact of ownership on economic performance.) However, the findings in this paper also establish that there are important influences besides economic efficiency that affect enterprise ownership and ownership changes.Privatisation, ownership change, employee ownership, transition economies, Estonia

The productivity effects of stock option schemes: Evidence from Finnish panel data

While theorists differ sharply on the expected economic impact of stock options, typically empirical work has found a positive association between option schemes and firm productivity. However, existing data are limited and may not enable reliable investigation of the productivity effects of different types of option scheme. New panel data for all Finnish publicly listed firms during 1992-2002 enable us to distinguish plans that are broad based and others limited to particular employees and address issues of endogeneity concerning inputs and options. Diverse specifications are estimated including dynamic panel data models with a GMM estimator. For broad-based option scheme indicators the key result is that different estimators consistently find statistically insignificant associations with firm productivity. For selective option schemes, the baseline fixed effects estimator suggests a 2.1-2.4% positive and statistically significant effect of a dilution indicator on firm productivity. However, in empirical models in which endogeneity and dynamics are taken into account, no evidence is found of a link with firm productivity. Thus our findings are consistent with hypotheses that predict negligible effects of option plans for enterprise performance, such as those based on free riding, or psychological expectancy theory or accounting myopia. However, by finding weak evidence for productivity effects of targeted schemes (and none for broad-based plans) our findings tend not to support hypotheses based on managerial rent seeking

The Relationship Between Financial Participation and Other Forms of Employee Participation : New Survey Evidence from Europe

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The incidence and determinants of employee involvement: Evidence from the Finnish manufacturing sector

In this paper, we present preliminary empirical findings on the incidence of employee involvement practices in the Finnish manufacturing sector. The novel survey on EI practices is based on a representative random sample from the population of the Finnish manufacturing firms who had 50 or more employees in 2005. Our main findings are that employee involvement practices are widespread in Finnish firms, although there is variation in the use of individual practices. Job rotation and satisfaction surveys are the most common practices and board representation the least common. Studying the determinants of these practices, we find evidence that they are more commonly used in larger firms and in firms that use heavily other advanced management practices

The determinants of stock option compensation: Evidence from Finland

A new, long and rich panel data set consisting of all Finnish publicly traded firms is used to study how firm characteristics and stock market developments influence the adoption and targeting of stock option compensation. Stock option adoption is found to be a pro-cyclical phenomenon. Findings from firm-level econometric analysis often corroborate those based on U.S. data, but important differences also emerge. Findings include: (i) firms with higher market value per employee are more likely to use stock option compensation; (ii) share returns from the past year affect the adoption of targeted stock options, but not broad-based plans; (iii) typically larger firms with dispersed ownership adopt selective plans, while small “new economy” firms favor broad-based plans