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I discuss my paper with Erik Devos of UTEP and Bill Elliott of John Carroll University in a   guest post on the NC State research blog .

This post is based on a paper coauthored with Erik Devos of UTEP and Bill Elliott of John Carroll University . To answer this question, we need a quick recap of options and splits. Stock option grants frequently make up a significant portion of CEOs' compensation packages.  Typically an option is granted to the CEO "at the money" meaning that the strike price is set close to trading price of the stock.  If the stock price increases after the option grant, the value of the option will increase.  This is a standard property of call options and is the prima facie reason for granting them in the first place. Stock splits are, by and large, cosmetic changes to the stock.  A 2 for 1 stock split results in each share of stock being replaced with 2 shares.   In such a split, the stock price should fall in half, so a $100 stock will split to two $50 stocks.   In reality, the $100 stock splits (on average) into two $51.50 stocks.   In effect a $3 or 3% gain in ...