"Option-loaded CEOs have a disproportionate tendency to generate more big losses than big gains,” says a report in the current Academy of Management Journal. "These findings may help put the nail in the coffin of executive stock options."

Study authors W. Gerard Sanders of Brigham Young University and Donald C. Hambrick of Penn State University agree. however, that’s not likely since options often constitute the largest single component in ever-increasing CEO pay.

The authors, who looked at investments and financial performance of 950 companies, note that the basic purpose of options has been to promote managerial aggressiveness in top executives even if they sometimes led them "to undertake large-scale risky investments that tended to deliver extreme company performance."

But, can lead to big losses, it adds. “If there is a solution,” the study suggests, “it is eminently simple: award options on a very limited basis or don't award them at all, supplanting them with restricted stock.”