Investment Opportunities and the Relation Between Equity Value and Employees’ Bonus
研究没有股票期权但发放年度奖金的公司，发现股权价值与股票奖金正相关，与现金奖金无关，且投资机会多时关系更强；股票奖金对股权价值的边际效应先增后减。
A sample of firms where employee stock options and other long‐term incentives are absent but an annual bonus is required is examined. A positive relation is found between firm equity value and stock bonus but not cash bonus. The positive relation is stronger when the firm has greater investment opportunities. Additionally, the relation is shown to be nonlinear in the sense that the marginal effect of stock bonus on equity value is positive but decreasing (negative) when the stock bonus is below (above) the breakpoint. Overall, the annual stock bonus is valued positively by investors even though it is linked to the firm's contemporaneous but not future performance.