CEO Social Class Origins and Risk Taking
研究发现，出身于工薪或中产阶层的CEO会使公司杠杆率显著提高近15%，且该效应在财富敏感度高、临近退休、权力不过大的CEO中更强，表明CEO社会阶层出身影响其决策，任命时应予考虑。
ABSTRACT The literature has shown that personal characteristics of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) affect their decision‐making. We use the type of school they attended as a proxy for social class origins and show that CEOs from the working‐ or middle‐class origins take on significantly higher corporate leverage by nearly 15%. This result is robust across a variety of different testing procedures and endogeneity tests, while the effect is stronger for CEOs with higher wealth sensitivity, closer to retirement and who are not overly powerful CEOs. An implication is that the social class origins of CEOs affect their decision‐making and should be considered when appointing CEOs.