Are REIT CEOs Rewarded for Performance? Another Look

Executive Summary. Researchers have found that firm size is more important than firm performance in determining the compensation of top managers of real estate investment trusts (REITs). In fact, some recent research excludes performance altogether as an explanatory variable in estimating compensation. This research reexamines this issue by using a market-based measure of performance and by segmenting compensation into total and incentive-based components. The results demonstrate that the rewards to performance dominate the rewards to size. This finding indicates that performance is a more important explanatory variable than prior research suggests.