Stock Option Watch Provides Analysis and Comment on Pay of Specialist and Executive Personnel

The "Stock Option Watch", produced by the Centre for European Economics Research (ZEW), will now appear twice a year, and will address new developments in the remuneration of specialist and executive personnel. Recognised experts and researchers will provide comment on potential developments in the pay of specialist and executive personnel and will consider the risks and advantages of these possibilities.

In the latest and first edition of "Stock Option Watch", Ulrich Hocker (Executive Director of the Deutschen Schutzvereinigung für Wertpapierbesitz (DSW) e.V.) calls for greater transparency in the remuneration of executive staff. He goes on to consider proposals made under the direction of Prof. Dr Gerhard Cromme for the implementation of the "German Corporate Governance Code". Markus Zeimes (Technical Director of the Accounting Standards Committee of Germany e.V.) provides an overview of new suggestions put forward by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) for expense-related and transparent accounting of share option plans. In their contributions, Prof. Dr Günter Franke (Director of the Center of Finance and Econometrics (CoFE) at the University of Constance and research professor at ZEW) and Dr Axel F. A. Adam-Müller (Stockholm Institute for Financial Research) indicate the risks associated with offering inappropriate incentives in option programmes. Franke particularly addresses the issues arising from the sometimes considerable manipulation of account balances which has occurred in the past few years. Prof. Dr Wolfgang Franz (President of ZEW and member of the German Council of Economic Experts) explains the essential issues arising from performance-related pay, whilst Dr Michael Schröder (ZEW) and Erik Lüders (ZEW and CoFE) provide a number of facts about the use of option schemes and the hidden personnel costs faced by German businesses. Businesses in the DAX30, as well as those in the former NEMAX, will be analysed in detail.

Contact

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

Erik Lüders, E-mail: lueders@zew.de