Executive Pay - How to Evaluate Stock Option Plans

The new issue of ZEW Stock Option Watch focuses on the evaluation of stock option plans as part of executive pay.

The issue focuses on the incentives that stock options create for management behaviour and the balancing of shareholders' and management interests. Twice a year, the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim publishes the Stock Option Watch as a supplement to ZEWnews.

In the first article of the Stock Option Watch, Alexander Koeberle-Schmidt (Union Investment) presents new criteria for assessing employees' stock option plans and evaluates the current stock option plans of EuroStoxx-50 companies.

The second article by Prof. Dr Robert M. Gillenkirch (University of Göttingen) critically discusses these evaluation criteria and their incentive effects.

Dirk Filbert and Michael H. Kramarsch (Tower Perrin) examine the long-term incentive effects of stock options and show alternatives to stock option plans.

In the fourth article, Dr Bernd Meyer (Deutsche Bank AG) examines the transparency of director's dealings, i. e. securities transactions by corporate insiders, and analyses the new European regulations.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Michael Schröder, Phone: +49(0)621/1235-140, E-mail: schroeder@zew.de