Why do managers matter for firm performance? This paper provides evidence of the critical role of managers in matching workers to jobs within the firm using the universe of personnel records from a large multinational firm. The data covers 200,000 white-collar workers and 30,000 managers over 10...

Greenwashing can be perceived as dishonest behavior that can threaten trust in business deals due to the current trend of an intensive scrutiny of sustainability-related messages from organizations. Drawing on the literature concerning managerial trust, our study analyzes how perceived...

We study the effects of corporate acquisitions on workers using Swedish administrative data and document substantial, persistent earnings losses following acquisitions. These losses reflect both displacement and wage cuts among stayers from target firms. We find no evidence that increased...

This paper develops a novel method to identify the causal contribution of managers to team performance. The method requires repeated random assignment of managers to multiple teams and controls for individuals' skills. A good manager is someone who consistently causes their team to produce more...

To date, the studies on managerial loss aversion have produced contradictory findings, making it impossible to: (i) identify the ultimate impact of managerial loss aversion on the value that organisations create for themselves and for their stakeholders, and (ii) mitigate the effect of...

Many companies in Germany must provide information beyond financial figures in their annual reports. For some years now, legislators have increasingly required information on non-financial aspects, such as the shares of women in leadership positions. Using a quantitative text analysis of annual...

The recent shift towards working from home (WFH) has far-reaching implications for social and economic outcomes. While firms are gatekeepers for the ongoing diffusion of flexible work arrangements, there is little evidence on how firms decide to offer WFH. We leverage two survey experiments...

Concerns about corporate scandals and abusive leadership suggest that individuals with an opportunistic and manipulative personality take advantage of incomplete incentive and control systems to get their way into managerial positions. Against this background, we examine whether there is an...

Acquiring skilled workers can be a key comparative advantage for firms. However, this process involves much uncertainty that firms need to navigate. Leveraging managers' social networks can help reduce search frictions, improve match quality, and boost firm performance. In this paper, we...

This chapter surveys recent advances in personnel economics. We discuss new research on incentives and compensation; hiring practices; the influence of managers and peers; and time use, technology, and training. Two main themes emerge from this survey. First, we illustrate the interplay between...

We employed a sample of Chinese A-listed firms from 2015 to 2021 and attempted to shift career embeddedness literature to the CEO's domain by theorizing how CEOs' career embeddedness influences their strategic choices, especially "going green". Drawing on human capital theory, upper echelon...

In this study, we focus on managerial incentives provided by debt-like compensation and further investigate whether and to what extent such managerial incentives may affect CEOs' decisions on risk management. Building on cumulative prospect theory and instrumental stakeholder theory, we propose...

This paper uses the Brexit referendum in 2016 as a quasi-natural experiment to estimate the effect of an exogenous negative shock to globalization on executive compensation for German companies listed in the DAX and MDAX stock indices. We show that it matters whether they work for firms...

This Brief examines issues related to women's participation as workers, top managers, and owners of private firms in 27 European Union countries (EU-27), using the rich database of the World Bank Enterprise Surveys. The analysis focuses on EU regions varying between about 800,000 and 3 million...

This report builds on a joint WHO-World Bank initiative on budget execution challenges (described in more detail in Appendix 1). Following the introduction, section 2 provides an overview of core concepts from both a public financial management perspective and a health financing perspective and...

Purpose The aim of this article is to highlight the major part played by executives in the escalation of corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). Based on the upper echelons theory, the authors developed a model which shows the essential role of CEOs in explaining CSI. The authors proposed that...

Purpose This study examines whether CEO power influences the book-based and market-based performance of Russian companies when it is restricted by the presence of essential shareholders, namely, state and influential businessmen. Design/methodology/approach Managerial power is divided into...

How does manager quality affect subordinates' career progression? We examine the causal effect of manager quality on workers' career outcomes in the context of managerial teams at a large construction firm. We exploit quasi-random variation in worker-manager matching through frequent project...

We examine the relationship between returnee chief executive officers (CEOs) and audit fees in China using robust econometric modeling with 25,630 firm-year observations between 2008 and 2020. A returnee CEO is a Chinese CEO who has previously worked or studied outside mainland China. Consistent...

We investigate the impact of tax-related human capital (THC) on corporate financial reporting aggressiveness. Using the presence of former or current tax officers from tax authorities on a firm's board of directors as a proxy for THC, we find that firms with tax officer directors report their...