Executive Pay and Performance in the UK 1994-2002

This paper examines the relationship between executive cash compensation and company performance for a sample of large UK companies over the period 1994-2002. This relationship is examined against a background of a series of reports into corporate governance mechanisms in UK companies. We show that base pay compensation of UK executives has increased substantially over this period, and we provide evidence on the movement in the pay-performance sensitivity over time. We identify an asymmetric relationship between pay and performance: in years and for companies in which stock returns are relatively high, pay-performance elasticities are high, but we find that executive pay is less sensitive to performance in those cases when stock returns are low. This suggests that overall there is little relationship between pay and performance. We also explore the heterogeneity of the pay-performance relationship across firms, and find that board structure, firm size, industry and firm risk are all significant determinants of executive compensation.Executive compensation, pay and performance

A canonical enriched Adams-Hilton model for simplicial sets

For any 1-reduced simplicial set $K$ we define a canonical, coassociative coproduct on \Om C(K), the cobar construction applied to the normalized, integral chains on $K$, such that any canonical quasi-isomorphism of chain algebras from \Om C(K) to the normalized, integral chains on $GK$, the loop group of $K$, is a coalgebra map up to strong homotopy. Our proof relies on the operadic description of the category of chain coalgebras and of strongly homotopy coalgebra maps given in math.AT/0505559.Comment: 28 pages. This revised version incorporates operadic techniques developed in math.AT/050555

Executive pay and performance in the UK

This paper examines the relationship between executive cash compensation and company performance for a sample of large UK companies, focusing in particular on the financial services industry, since incentive misalignment has been blamed as one of the factors causing the global financial crisis of 2007/08. We show that base salary and bonuses of UK executives has increased substantially over this period 1994-2006, and we provide evidence on the movement in the pay-performance sensitivity over time. We find that although pay in the financial services sector is high, the cash pay-performance sensitivity of banks and financial firms is not significantly higher than in other sectors. We claim that this finding of a low sensitivity of pay and performance questions the rationale for regulatory changes to remuneration practices in the banking sector. For all companies we identify an asymmetric relationship between pay and performance: for companies in which stock returns are relatively high, pay-performance elasticities are high, but we find that executive pay is less sensitive to performance when stock returns are low

Fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis of Norwegian Bacillus cereus and Bacillus thuringiensis soil isolates

We examined 154 Norwegian B. cereus and B. thuringiensis soil isolates (collected from five different locations), 8 B. cereus and 2 B. thuringiensis reference strains, and 2 Bacillus anthracis strains by using fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). We employed a novel fragment identification approach based on a hierarchical agglomerative clustering routine that identifies fragments in an automated fashion. No method is free of error, and we identified the major sources so that experiments can be designed to minimize its effect. Phylogenetic analysis of the fluorescent AFLP results reveals five genetic groups in these group 1 bacilli. The ATCC reference strains were restricted to two of the genetic groups, clearly not representative of the diversity in these bacteria. Both B. anthracis strains analyzed were closely related and affiliated with a B. cereus milk isolate (ATCC 4342) and a B. cereus human pathogenic strain (periodontitis). Across the entire study, pathogenic strains, including B. anthracis, were more closely related to one another than to the environmental isolates. Eight strains representing the five distinct phylogenetic clusters were further analyzed by comparison of their 16S rRNA gene sequences to confirm the phylogenetic status of these groups. This analysis was consistent with the AFLP analysis, although of much lower resolution. The innovation of automated genotype analysis by using a replicated and statistical approach to fragment identification will allow very large sample analyses in the future

A generalised Euler-Poincaré formula for associahedra

We derive a formula for the number of flip-equivalence classes of tilings of an n-gon by collections of tiles of shape dictated by an integer partition λ. The proof uses the Euler–Poincaré formula; and the formula itself generalises the Euler–Poincaré formula for associahedr

A Gas-poor Planetesimal Capture Model for the Formation of Giant Planet Satellite Systems

Assuming that an unknown mechanism (e.g., gas turbulence) removes most of the subnebula gas disk in a timescale shorter than that for satellite formation, we develop a model for the formation of regular (and possibly at least some of the irregular) satellites around giant planets in a gas-poor environment. In this model, which follows along the lines of the work of Safronov et al. (1986), heliocentric planetesimals collide within the planet's Hill sphere and generate a circumplanetary disk of prograde and retrograde satellitesimals extending as far out as $\sim R_H/2$. At first, the net angular momentum of this proto-satellite swarm is small, and collisions among satellitesimals leads to loss of mass from the outer disk, and delivers mass to the inner disk (where regular satellites form) in a timescale $\lesssim 10^5$ years. This mass loss may be offset by continued collisional capture of sufficiently small $< 1$ km interlopers resulting from the disruption of planetesimals in the feeding zone of the giant planet. As the planet's feeding zone is cleared in a timescale $\lesssim 10^5$ years, enough angular momentum may be delivered to the proto-satellite swarm to account for the angular momentum of the regular satellites of Jupiter and Saturn.(abridged)Comment: 45 pages, 11 figures, 3 appendices, uses rgfmacro.tex, accepted for publication to Icaru

Fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis of Bacillus anthracis, Bacillus cereus, and Bacillus thuringiensis isolates

DNA from over 300 Bacillus thuringiensis, Bacillus cereus, and Bacillus anthracis isolates was analyzed by fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP). B. thuringiensis and B. cereus isolates were from diverse sources and locations, including soil, clinical isolates and food products causing diarrheal and emetic outbreaks, and type strains from the American Type Culture Collection, and over 200 B. thuringiensis isolates representing 36 serovars or subspecies were from the U.S. Department of Agriculture collection. Twenty-four diverse B. anthracis isolates were also included. Phylogenetic analysis of AFLP data revealed extensive diversity within B. thuringiensis and B. cereus compared to the monomorphic nature of B. anthracis. All of the B. anthracis strains were more closely related to each other than to any other Bacillus isolate, while B. cereus and B. thuringiensis strains populated the entire tree. Ten distinct branches were defined, with many branches containing both B. cereus and B. thuringiensis isolates. A single branch contained all the B. anthracis isolates plus an unusual B. thuringiensis isolate that is pathogenic in mice. In contrast, B. thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki (ATCC 33679) and other isolates used to prepare insecticides mapped distal to the B. anthracis isolates. The interspersion of B. cereus and B. thuringiensis isolates within the phylogenetic tree suggests that phenotypic traits used to distinguish between these two species do not reflect the genomic content of the different isolates and that horizontal gene transfer plays an important role in establishing the phenotype of each of these microbes. B. thuringiensis isolates of a particular subspecies tended to cluster together