Rost/Osterloh (2009): Management Fashion Pay-for-Performance for CEOs
Does "Pay-for-Performance" pay off? This is the question Katja Rost and Margit Osterloh, both University of Zurich, ask. "Pay-for-Performance" is a practice for management salary that refers to the relation between firm performance and payment. As the authors claim it has the status of a management fashion (like TQM, portfolio management, empowerment, and many others). Their empirical findings show that the firm's performance does not increase due to higher payment. So the answer is: no, it doesn't pay off.
The article can be read in Schmalenbach Business Review, Vol. 61 (2009), April issue, pp. 119-149.
(Victor Tiberius)