Econ Papers Daily / 期刊论文
多元化与消费动机对员工股票期权提前行权的比较
Diversification versus Consumption Motives for Early Exercise of Employee Stock Options
摘要
Employees may exercise stock options early to diversify, to fund consumption, or for behavioral reasons. While prior research emphasizes diversification, limited evidence distinguishes these motives. Using data for 3,500 employees across five companies, we show that home price changes, our proxy for exogenous changes in outside wealth, are positively associated with option exercises, consistent with consumption motives but not diversification or behavioral reasons. We estimate that annual option exercises increase by $0.17 per dollar of home price increase. Additional findings are inconsistent with diversification motives: exercise is more likely following grants of restricted stock but not options, employees often exercise all available options at once, and the risk aversion required to justify early exercise is implausibly large. We also present survey evidence from 1,674 stock-option plan participants suggesting that consumption is the primary motive for option exercises. Collectively, our findings suggest that prior research overstates the importance of diversification motives.
中文摘要
员工可能出于分散风险、为消费融资或行为方面的原因而提前行使股票期权。尽管已有研究强调分散化动机，但区分这些动机的证据仍然有限。我们利用五家公司3500名员工的数据表明，房价变化——我们将其作为外部财富外生变化的代理变量——与期权行使呈正相关，这与消费动机一致，而与分散化或行为方面的原因不一致。我们估计，房价每上涨1美元，年度期权行使额增加0.17美元。其他发现与分散化动机不一致：在授予限制性股票而非期权之后，员工更可能行使期权；员工往往一次性行使所有可行权的期权；而为证明提前行使的合理性所需的风险厌恶程度大得不合情理。我们还提供了来自1674名股票期权计划参与者的调查证据，表明消费是期权行使的主要动机。总体而言，我们的发现表明，已有研究高估了分散化动机的重要性。