While the evidence documents significant use of accounting numbers in determining cash compensation, both the determinants of cash compensation and the importance of cash compensation in the overall incentive package exhibit significant time trends. Bushman, Engel, Milliron, and Smith (1998) document that over the 1971-95 period, firms have substituted away from accounting earnings toward other information in determining top executives’ cash compensation. It has also been documented that the contribution of cash compensation to the overall intensity of top executive incentives has diminished in recent years. Recent studies construct explicit measures of the sensitivity of the value of stock and.