Multiple-performance-measure agency models predict that optimal contracts should place greater reliance on performance measures that are more precise and more sensitive to the agent's effort. We apply these predictions to CEO retention decisions. First, we develop an agency model to motivate proxies for signal and noise in firm-level performance measures. We then document that accounting information appears to receive greater weight in turnover decisions when accounting-based measures are more precise and more sensitive. We also present evidence suggesting that market-based performance measures receive less weight in turnover decisions when accounting-based measures are more sensitive or market returns are more variable.

This paper presents evidence of anomalies in internet firms’ stock returns surrounding their quarterly earnings announcements. There is a general runup in prices in the days prior to the earnings announcements, followed by a price reversal lasting for several days. The magnitude of the market-adjusted returns associated with these price movements exceeds 11 percent over a 10-day period. We find little evidence to suggest that these returns can be explained either by the earnings news disclosed or by risk changes. Additional analyses suggest that these return patterns are driven, at least in part, by price pressure.

We investigate whether corporate executives’ stock repurchase decisions are affected by their incentives to manage diluted earning per share (EPS). We find that executives increase the level of their firms’ stock repurchases when: (1) the dilutive effect of outstanding employee stock options (ESOs) on diluted EPS increases, and (2) earnings are below the level required to achieve the desired rate of EPS growth. We also find that executives’ repurchase decisions are not associated with actual ESO exercises, suggesting that they are driven by incentives to manage diluted but not basic EPS, and strengthening our earnings management interpretation.