Or is it just luck that certain corporate executives and directors just happen to get grants of stock options when they are at their lowest? Two recent studies find a very high degree of manipulation.

In 2005, Forbes Magazine reported: "The heads of America's 500 biggest companies received an aggregate 54% pay raise last year. As a group, their total compensation amounted to $5.1 billion, versus $3.3 billion in fiscal 2003."

This isn't just about getting paid well as a reward for hard work and talent. For example, CEOs pick the people who set the CEO's pay rate. link. And the CEO sets the director's pay.

There is also a tie in with unseemly behavior. As the Boston Globe puts it: Soldiers die, CEOs prosper. And United for a Fair Economy has been keeping an eye on executive pay in targeted industries as it has risen to astronomical levels. If you are interested in a particular company, you can find information on its pay levels here.

Under fire recently has been not only very high pay that does not seem to fit with company performance, but also options backdating. The New York Timesrecently ran a study of one way to fudge the factors that affect executive compensation - claim companies are peers when they are not - and then use them to set compensation.

Two recent studies examine both CEO and Director pay. You can read or download them from SSRN.

Lucian Bebchuk, Yaniv Grinstein & Urs Peyer, Lucky CEOs (November 2006).

Lucian Bebchuk, Yaniv Grinstein & Urs Peyer, Lucky Directors (December 2006).

• stock-options,
• CEOs