外文翻译--股票期权奖励与盈余管理动机.docVIP

本科毕业论文（设计） 外 文 翻 译 原文： Stock Option Compensation and Earnings Management Incentives This study focuses on the relation between the structure of executive compensation and incentives to manage reported earnings. Specifically, we examine whether the use of stock options relative to other forms of pay influences discretionary accrual choices around option award dates. We conduct this study in part because of the apparent trend over the past two decades toward the use of options in executive pay. Compensation research has consistently shown that option awards, measured on a fair value basis, now represent on average the largest component of CEO pay (Murphy [1999]; Baker [1999]; Matsunaga [1995]; Yermack [1995]). Not surprisingly, this trend seems to have contributed to increased scrutiny of CEO pay and to have led directly to several public policy initiatives during the 1990s.For example, accounting standard setters adopted a series of rules that greatly expanded investor reporting requirements on options (SEC [1992, 1993]; FASB [1995]), and, in 1993, Congress enacted tax legislation intended to curb nonperformance-based executive pay (see Reitenga et al. [2002]; Perry and Zenner [2001]). Furthermore, as reported in the financial press, criticism of the magnitude of option awards, including criticism by investors, seems to occur regularly (e.g.Orwall [1997]; Jereski [1997]; Fox [2001]; Colvin [2001]). Standard setters and politicians are currently reexamining disclosure rules, offering evidence that options continue to be a difficult public policy issue (Schroeder [2001]; Hamburger and Whelan [2002]; WSJ [2002]). Until recently, academic research has typically focused on testing the use of options within an agency theory framework, primarily examining incentive alignment aspects. Arguably, by tying executive pay to stock price outcomes, options encourage managers to make operating and investing decisions that maximize shareholder wealth (Jensen and Meckling [1976]).