American Corporations and Their Executives: A Statistical Inquiry

Abstract

I. Subject and methods of the inquiry: Industries covered and questions asked, 1. — A pre-war period selected, 7. — Arrangement of the returns by classes and groups, 9. — II. Stock ownership by executives: Their salaries, 11. — Extent to which executives hold stock in large concerns, 12. — In moderate and small concerns, 14. — Stockholdings by relatives or friends of the executives, 18. — Executive salaries, by classes and groups, 19. — Fixity of salaries; only in the long run adjusted to corporate earnings, 20. — Proportion of management expense to capital, 23. — Proportion in close corporations and in those widely owned, 27. — Rarity of arrangements for bonus or profit-sharing, 28. — III. Earnings and surpluses, for all classes, 30. — For the first class, 33. — For the second class, 34. — Earnings in the first class more regular but less high, 35. — Dividends and surpluses, 37. — Significance of surplus, 39. — IV. The theory of profits: Contrast between American and European practice, 40. — Two views on theory: the one regarding business profits as a form of wages, the other as distinct from wages, 40. — American practice in accord with the second view, 42. — European practice, especially on the Continent, implies more nearly the first view: The tantieme, 43. — The merits and demerits of the two practices, 48. — Conclusion, 59.