The relationship between CEO’ remuneration and firm performance: Evidence from ATX and DAX

Chief Executive Officers’ (CEO) remuneration became a more discussed topic in the media in recent years as CEOs have, on average, higher remuneration in comparison to the average salary of the company’s employees. On the one hand side, the risk and the responsibility which they bear needs to be valued. With their broad knowledge and experience, they contribute to the overall firm performance and may improve it. On the other hand, with positive performance results and possible raises of the share price, the CEOs can benefit from variable remuneration components in the form of bonuses or share packages of the firm. Our work aims to shed light on the impact of the CEO remuneration on firm performance and vice versa, i.e., the impact of the firm performance on the CEO remuneration and the simultaneous influence. The analysis is done with secondary data of Austrian and German firms listed in the leading share indices ATX (Austrian Traded Index) and DAX (Deutscher Aktienindex), respectively, during the period from 2012 to 2019. CEO remuneration specified into their main components: a fixed and a variable (performance-related) part, is analyzed. Both accounting-based (ROA – Return on Assets, EVA – Economic Value Added) and market-based measures (TQ - Tobin’s Q, TSR – Total Shareholder Return) are used to measure the firm performance. Our key findings of this analysis are that total remuneration and the two accounting-based performance indicators ROA and SEVA, have a simultaneous relationship in Austria. For Germany, we found out that all remuneration components influence ROA significantly positively and that all remuneration components are statistically significantly influenced by ROA. Despite that, we found evidence for a simultaneous relationship between bonus and total remuneration, respectively, and SEVA and TQ. This research contributes to the literature since three perspectives of the relationship are considered; both accounting-based and market-based performance, with two indicators each, are used; and different remuneration components are considered instead of just analyzing total remuneration

Is Additional CEO Remuneration a Performance Driver? DAX CEOs Evidence

This study aims to understand the impact of the additional remuneration of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) over the mean remuneration of the board of directors on firms’ financial performance. The objective is to understand if the highest compensation of the CEO is a firm performance driver. In addition to the impact of total remuneration, the different remuneration components were split and analyzed. An unbalanced panel data of listed companies in DAX–Germany over the period from 2006 until 2019 is analyzed. Using dynamic methodology to estimate the models, the results show that higher additional remuneration positively explains higher firm performance measured using both accounting and market measures. The impact is also evident when additional remuneration components are analyzed. These results support the tournament theory, since when CEOs feel rewarded, they are more efficient in increasing the firm’s performance. Moreover, the firms’ financial characteristics, as well as macroeconomic factors, are also relevant to explaining its performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Vermittlung sprachlichen Handelns mit Literaturarbeit im DaF/DaZ Unterricht – Brechts „Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder“ aus Sicht der Funktionalen Pragmatik

Dieser Artikel gibt einen ersten Einblick, wie die Funktionale Pragmatik im Zusammenhang mit literarischen Texten als Lehransatz am Beispiel für den DaF/DaZ-Unterricht genutzt werden kann. Die Funktionale Pragmatik ist von Konrad Ehlich und Jochen Rehbein zur Analyse des sprachlichen Handelns begründet worden und hält vielerlei Möglichkeiten zur vorteilhaften Nutzung im (deutschen) Fremdsprachenunterricht bereit. Am Beispiel des Dramas „Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder“ von Bertolt Brecht werden in diesem Artikel einige dieser Möglichkeiten aufgezeigt, sowie das Warum zur Anwendung der Funktionalen Pragmatik im (deutschen) Fremdsprachenunterricht dargelegt

Diplopia in Parkinson's disease: Indication of a cortical phenotype with cognitive dysfunction?

Background: Visual disturbances are increasingly recognized as common non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD). In PD patients, intermittent diplopia has been found to be associated with the presence of visual hallucinations and the Parkinson's psychosis spectrum. Here, we investigated whether diplopia in PD is associated with other non-motor traits and cognitive impairment. Methods: We investigated 50 non-demented PD patients with and without intermittent diplopia and 24 healthy controls for visual disturbances, as well as motor and non-motor symptoms. All participants underwent a neuropsychological test battery; visuospatial abilities were further evaluated with subtests of the Visual Object and Space Perception Battery (VOSP). The two PD patient groups did not differ significantly in age, symptom duration, motor symptom severity, frequency of visual hallucinations, or visual sensory efficiency. Results: PD patients with diplopia reported more frequent non-motor symptoms including more subjective cognitive problems and apathy without changes in global cognition measures compared to those without diplopia. PD patients with diplopia had greater impairment in several tests of visuospatial function (pentagon copying p = .002; number location p = .001; cube analysis p < .02) and object perception (p < .001) compared to PD patients without diplopia and healthy controls. By contrast, no consistent group differences were observed in executive function, memory, or language. Conclusions: PD patients with diplopia have a greater non-motor symptom burden and deficits in visuospatial function compared to PD patients without diplopia. PD patients with diplopia might be prone to a cortical phenotype with cognitive decline and apathy associated with worse prognosis

Modulation of Habit Formation by Levodopa in Parkinson's Disease

Dopamine promotes the execution of positively reinforced actions, but its role for the formation of behaviour when feedback is unavailable remains open. To study this issue, the performance of treated/untreated patients with Parkinson's disease and controls was analysed in an implicit learning task, hypothesising dopamine-dependent adherence to hidden task rules. Sixteen patients on/off levodopa and fourteen healthy subjects engaged in a Go/NoGo paradigm comprising four equiprobable stimuli. One of the stimuli was defined as target which was first consistently preceded by one of the three non-target stimuli (conditioning), whereas this coupling was dissolved thereafter (deconditioning). Two task versions were presented: in a ‘Go version’, only the target cue required the execution of a button press, whereas non-target stimuli were not instructive of a response; in a ‘NoGo version’, only the target cue demanded the inhibition of the button press which was demanded upon any non-target stimulus. Levodopa influenced in which task version errors grew from conditioning to deconditioning: in unmedicated patients just as controls errors only rose in the NoGo version with an increase of incorrect responses to target cues. Contrarily, in medicated patients errors went up only in the Go version with an increase of response omissions to target cues. The error increases during deconditioning can be understood as a perpetuation of reaction tendencies acquired during conditioning. The levodopa-mediated modulation of this carry-over effect suggests that dopamine supports habit conditioning under the task demand of response execution, but dampens it when inhibition is required. However, other than in reinforcement learning, supporting dopaminergic actions referred to the most frequent, i. e., non-target behaviour. Since this is passive whenever selective actions are executed against an inactive background, dopaminergic treatment could in according scenarios contribute to passive behaviour in patients with Parkinson's disease

Differential Influence of Levodopa on Reward-Based Learning in Parkinson's Disease

The mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) system linking the dopaminergic midbrain to the prefrontal cortex and subcortical striatum has been shown to be sensitive to reinforcement in animals and humans. Within this system, coexistent segregated striato-frontal circuits have been linked to different functions. In the present study, we tested patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by dopaminergic cell loss, on two reward-based learning tasks assumed to differentially involve dorsal and ventral striato-frontal circuits. 15 non-depressed and non-demented PD patients on levodopa monotherapy were tested both on and off medication. Levodopa had beneficial effects on the performance on an instrumental learning task with constant stimulus-reward associations, hypothesized to rely on dorsal striato-frontal circuits. In contrast, performance on a reversal learning task with changing reward contingencies, relying on ventral striato-frontal structures, was better in the unmedicated state. These results are in line with the “overdose hypothesis” which assumes detrimental effects of dopaminergic medication on functions relying upon less affected regions in PD. This study demonstrates, in a within-subject design, a double dissociation of dopaminergic medication and performance on two reward-based learning tasks differing in regard to whether reward contingencies are constant or dynamic. There was no evidence for a dose effect of levodopa on reward-based behavior with the patients’ actual levodopa dose being uncorrelated to their performance on the reward-based learning tasks

(2E)-1-[2-Hydr­oxy-4-(2-methyl­prop­oxy)phen­yl]-3-(4-methyl­phen­yl)prop-2-en-1-one

The benzene rings in the title compound, C20H22O3, form a dihedral angle of 10.39 (8)°. Overall, the mol­ecule is approximately planar with the exception of one of the terminal methyl groups; excluding this group, the r.m.s. deviation for the remaining 22 non-H atoms is 0.0968 Å. The conformation about the C=C bond is E, and an intra­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bond leads to the formation of an S(6) motif. In the crystal, linear supra­molecular chains are formed along the a axis via C—H⋯O contacts, and these are connected into double chains via C—H⋯π inter­actions

(Re)discovering the Gaulcross Hoard

Acknowledgements We would like to thank Charles and Helen Gray for permitting access to the land and for support in the excavation of the hoard. Thanks also to Bruce Mann and the Aberdeenshire Council Archaeology Service for advice and supporting the radiocarbon dating. Fraser Hunter and Tanja Romankiewicz assisted during a very cold excavation. Fraser and Alice Blackwell kindly read and commented on drafts of this paper. The fieldwork was funded through a donation to the University of Aberdeen's Development Trust and undertaken as part of the Northern Picts project, in association with the Tarbat Discovery Centre.Peer reviewedPostprin

Abnormal Distracter Processing in Adults with Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder

Background: Subjects with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are overdistractible by stimuli out of the intended focus of attention. This control deficit could be due to primarily reduced attentional capacities or, e. g., to overshooting orienting to unexpected events. Here, we aimed at identifying disease-related abnormalities of novelty processing and, therefore, studied event-related potentials (ERP) to respective stimuli in adult ADHD patients compared to healthy subjects. Methods: Fifteen unmedicated subjects with ADHD and fifteen matched controls engaged in a visual oddball task (OT) under simultaneous EEG recordings. A target stimulus, upon which a motor response was required, and non-target stimuli, which did not demand a specific reaction, were presented in random order. Target and most non-target stimuli were presented repeatedly, but some non-target stimuli occurred only once (‘novels’). These unique stimuli were either ‘relative novels ’ with which a meaning could be associated, or ‘complete novels’, if no association was available. Results: In frontal recordings, a positive component with a peak latency of some 400 ms became maximal after novels. In healthy subjects, this novelty-P3 (or ‘orienting response’) was of higher magnitude after complete than after relative novels, in contrast to the patients with an undifferentially high frontal responsivity. Instead, ADHD patients tended to smaller centro-parietal P3 responses after target signals and, on a behavioural level, responded slower than controls