Power Laws, CEO Compensation and Inequality

descriptionPublicationkeyboard_double_arrow_right Article , Other literature type 01 Jan 2014 English Publisher:Elsevier BVJournal:SSRN Electronic Journal (eissn: 1556-5068,

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Authors: Calvin Blackwell; Rachel Graefe-Anderson; Frank Hefner; Dyanne Vaught;

doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2489191 , 10.1016/j.econlet.2014.11.012

Power Laws, CEO Compensation and Inequality

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Abstract

We observe that CEO compensation and top incomes in the US have both been increasing rapidly over the last thirty years. We hypothesize that the trends in CEO compensation have been caused by the same economy-wide factors that have contributed to increases in income. We test this hypothesis by using ExecuComp and IRS tax data to estimate power law distributions and compare the behavior of these distributions over time. Using linear regression techniques, we estimate a power law distribution for CEO compensation and individual income. We find that the parameters of income distribution and the distribution of CEO compensation are correlated.

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