Behavioral consistency in corporate finance: CEO personal and corporate leverage

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Cronqvist, Henrik; Makhija, Anil K.; Yonker, Scott E.
• 署名单位: University System of Ohio; Ohio State University; Claremont Colleges; Claremont Graduate University; Claremont McKenna College; Indiana University System; Indiana University Bloomington; IU Kelley School of Business
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2011.08.005
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 20-40
• 关键词: Corporate finance; Behavioral consistency theory; CEO personal leverage; Corporate leverage

摘要

We find that firms behave consistently with how their CEOs behave personally in the context of leverage choices. Analyzing data on CEOs' leverage in their most recent primary home purchases, we find a positive, economically relevant, robust relation between corporate and personal leverage in the cross-section and when examining CEO turnovers. The results are consistent with an endogenous matching of CEOs to firms based on preferences, as well as with CEOs imprinting their personal preferences on the firms they manage, particularly when governance is weaker. Besides enhancing our understanding of the determinants of corporate capital structures, the broader contribution of the paper is to show that CEOs' personal behavior can, in part, explain corporate financial behavior of the firms they manage. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.