As everyone knows, incentive compensation is a two-edged sword: Such pay can incentivize the wrong as well as right type of risk taking. That is, the prospect of a bonus may motivate employees to game the numbers instead of improving a company's actual returns. The latter is obviously a plus for a business, the former a negative to the extent it fools management into overpaying for poor performance.

Now a new study shows the risks of such compensation schemes is greater than the rewards.