The Association between Market Valuation and Employee Stock Bonus

Abstract

This paper investigates whether the market valuation is a determinant of the stock bonus to employees in Taiwan. That is, we examine the relation between market valuation and the decision to grant stock bonus to employees, the amount and the value of the stock bonus, and the fraction of the stock bonus to executives. The empirical evidence shows that firms with high market valuation are more likely to adopt employee stock bonus and grant more stock bonus to employees. Furthermore, top executives tend to grant a relatively greater portion of stock bonus to themselves when they perceive that the current market valuation is high. Therefore, this paper supports the conjecture of market valuation rationale that employee stock bonus can be used as a means to sell overvalued equity.