CEO Remuneration and Ownership Structure in Swedish Listed Companies

Abstract: This study investigates the executive remuneration packages and the ownership structures for a sample of Swedish companies which are listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The main question is whether the strength of the CEO is influenced by firm performance given the information of group management as well as institutional ownership structure. Financial crisis of 2008 leads to divide the sample period into pre-crisis and post-crisis periods.  I find a significant and a positive relationship between CEO strength and company performance for the whole sample period, while during the pre-crisis and the post-crisis intervals, firm performance and executive power had a positive and insignificant relationship. I also find a significant and a positive relation between executive total payments and CEO query on the popular finance Swedish press for all three considered time periods. The findings do not support the claim that compensation to CEOs are related to the age of the executives. Companies with a high institutional ownership are associated with a better compensation to the CEO, however they decline the CEO power.