The Evolution of the Market for Corporate Executives across the Twentieth Century

Another significant trend in managerial compensation has been a marked transformation in the structure of pay over the sample period: stock option grants and other forms of incentive pay have been growing shares of total compensation ever since the 1950s. Earlier in the twentieth century corporate executives faced exceedingly high marginal personal income tax rates, which created an incentive for firms to search for alternative ways to remunerate top executives.