As chairman of the board of ASP Industries, you estimate that your annual profit is given by
Question:
You must design a compensation package for the CEO that will maximize the firm€™s expected profit. While the firm is risk neutral, the CEO is risk averse. The CEO€™s utility function is
Utility  W0.5 when making low effort
Utility  W0.5 ï€ 100 when making high effort
Where W is the CEO€™s income. (The €“100 is the €œutility cost€ to the CEO of making a high effort.) You know the CEO€™s utility function, and both you and the CEO know all of the information in the preceding table. You do not know the level of the CEO€™s effort at time of compensation or the exact state of demand. You do see the firm€™s profit, however.
Of the three alternative compensation packages below, which do you as chairman of ASP Industries prefer? Why?
Package 1: Pay the CEO a flat salary of $575,000 per year
Package 2: Pay the CEO a fixed 6% of yearly firm profits
Package 3: Pay the CEO a flat salary of $500,000 per year and then 50% of any profits above $15 million
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