Abstract
We contribute to the intersection of top executive turnover and compensation research by investigating pay structure implications on turnover, focusing on the second best-paid executive as the one being closest to winning the tournament for the best-paid position. Building on tournament theory and using competing-risks survival regression, we develop and test hypotheses with regard to the effects of pay disparity among a firm’s top executives and external pay alternatives on the exit of the second best-paid executive. For a sample of S&P 500 firms in the 14-year period between 1993 and 2006, we find that comparisons with higher paid executives and external pay alternatives matter for individuals’ decisions whether to stay in or to leave a pay tournament, whereas comparisons to lower paid executives do not.
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