The determinants and performance consequences of the CEO pay slice

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Business.There is an emerging literature which focuses on the proportion of the CEO’s pay as a percentage of all senior executives’ pay (the CEO pay slice). This literature tests the association between the CEO pay slice and different economic activities but stays silent on the key drivers of the observed variations in the CEO pay slice. This thesis develops a theoretical framework for the economic determinants of the CEO pay slice (CPS) and tests this framework using a sample of 9,978 U.S. listed firms for the period 2001-2010. This thesis also provides evidence on the performance consequences of firms with an inefficient CPS. The findings in this thesis indicate that the CPS reflects rational allocation of decision authority between the CEO and senior executives. This allocation of decision authority is driven by firms' economic characteristics including the degree of business diversification, R&D intensity, and growth options. The CPS also reflects the market for CEO talent. There is limited evidence that an inefficient CPS is related to subsequent firm performance. No relation is found between inefficient CPS and accounting returns, however a negative relation is found between inefficient CPS and subsequent market returns. This thesis finds no evidence supporting the alternative managerial power explanation of the CPS as no relation is found between the CPS and proxies for CEO power, or between the CPS and subsequent accounting or market based firm performance. The findings in this thesis are consistent with respect to a number of sensitivity tests

Is there a gender gap in CEO compensation?

The gender pay gap generates significant political and social debate. This study contributes to this discussion by examining if a gender pay gap exists at the highest level of corporate management, the CEOs. While previous studies have documented a gender pay gap for most levels of executives the findings with respect to CEOs are conflicting. In this paper we focus only on CEO's as it is the most homogenous of executive roles and does not require us to assume that executives with similar titles undertake identical roles. Our evidence is based on 291 US firm-years for the period of 1998-2010. We do not find any association between CEO pay and gender using both the total sample and a sample matched using propensity scores to control for firm characteristics. These insignificant results hold for total pay, salary and bonuses, and for different matching procedures and econometric specifications. Our results therefore indicate that women who rise through the "glass ceiling" to the level of CEO are remunerated at similar levels to their male counterparts. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

Making Laws Moral: A Defense of Substantive Canons of Construction

Judges play a central, and difficult, role in our regime. The difficulty arises from our expectations for them. Judges, we demand, should both ensure that justice is done and be neutral arbiters of the laws enacted by the people. These two responsibilities are in constant tension, and it is all too easy for judges to emphasize one responsibility at the expense of the other. Judges should be neither mere minions of the legislature nor our Platonic Guardians. We do not need enlightened despots to impose justice upon us or to trick us into doing justice by pretending that they are implementing the popular will when they are really doing what they think is right

A preventive maintenance cost model application

This thesis has developed a proposed model for the solution of the problem of determining, on the basis of cost, how to maintain industrial equipment subject to wearout failure. Bayesian statistics are used to determine the parts or pieces of equipment which contribute the most to system failure

Transmission of mitochondrial DNA following assisted reproduction and nuclear transfer

Review of the articleMitochondria are the organelles responsible for producing the majority of a cell's ATP and also play an essential role in gamete maturation and embryo development. ATP production within the mitochondria is dependent on proteins encoded by both the nuclear and the mitochondrial genomes, therefore co-ordination between the two genomes is vital for cell survival. To assist with this co-ordination, cells normally contain only one type of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) termed homoplasmy. Occasionally, however, two or more types of mtDNA are present termed heteroplasmy. This can result from a combination of mutant and wild-type mtDNA molecules or from a combination of wild-type mtDNA variants. As heteroplasmy can result in mitochondrial disease, various mechanisms exist in the natural fertilization process to ensure the maternal-only transmission of mtDNA and the maintenance of homoplasmy in future generations. However, there is now an increasing use of invasive oocyte reconstruction protocols, which tend to bypass mechanisms for the maintenance of homoplasmy, potentially resulting in the transmission of either form of mtDNA heteroplasmy. Indeed, heteroplasmy caused by combinations of wild-type variants has been reported following cytoplasmic transfer (CT) in the human and following nuclear transfer (NT) in various animal species. Other techniques, such as germinal vesicle transfer and pronuclei transfer, have been proposed as methods of preventing transmission of mitochondrial diseases to future generations. However, resulting embryos and offspring may contain mtDNA heteroplasmy, which itself could result in mitochondrial disease. It is therefore essential that uniparental transmission of mtDNA is ensured before these techniques are used therapeutically