From Playground to Boardroom: Endowed Social Status and Managerial Performance

• Other Authors: Du, Fangfang (Author)
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Finance; endowed social status; family wealth; firm performance; managerial style
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2286/R.I.49371

abstract: By matching a CEO's place of residence in his or her formative years with U.S. Census survey data, I obtain an estimate of the CEO's family wealth and study the link between the CEO's endowed social status and firm performance. I find that, on average, CEOs born into poor families outperform those born into wealthy families, as measured by a variety of proxies for firm performance. There is no evidence of higher risk-taking by the CEOs from low social status backgrounds. Further, CEOs from less privileged families perform better in firms with high R&D spending but they underperform CEOs from wealthy families when firms operate in a more uncertain environment. Taken together, my results show that endowed family wealth of a CEO is useful in identifying his or her managerial ability. === Dissertation/Thesis === Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2018