Say on Pay Votes and CEO Compensation: Evidence from the UK Fabrizio Ferri * Columbia University David A. Maber University of Southern California Review of Finance, Forthcoming Abstract: We examine the effect of say on pay regulation in the United Kingdom (UK). Consistent with the view that shareholders regard say on pay as a value-creating mechanism, the regulation’s announcement triggered a positive stock price reaction at firms with weak penalties for poor performance. UK firms responded to negative say on pay voting outcomes by removing controversial CEO pay practices criticized as rewards for failure (e.g., generous severance contracts) and increasing the sensitivity of pay to poor realizations of performance. JEL classification: G34, G38, J33, M12 * Corresponding Author: Columbia Business School. Columbia University, Uris Hall 618, 3022 Broadway, New York, NY 10027, phone: (212) 854-0425, email:
[email protected] We thank an anonymous reviewer, Gennaro Bernile, Brian Cadman, Brian Cheffins, Shijun Cheng, Martin Conyon, Merle Ederhof, Joseph Gerakos, Jeffrey Gordon, Yaniv Grinstein, Kevin J. Murphy, Marco Pagano (the editor), Dhinu Srinivasan, Laura Starks, Randall Thomas, and discussants and participants at the 2007 Shareholders and Corporate Governance Conference at the Said Business School, the 2007 IMO Conference at the Harvard Business School, the 2008 National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) meeting, the 2008 International Accounting Symposium at Columbia University, the 2008 London Business School Accounting Symposium,