Bridging the Gap: Evidence from Externally Hired CEOs

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ertimur, Yonca; Rawson, Caleb; Rogers, Jonathan L.; Zechman, Sarah L. C.
• 署名单位: University of Colorado System; University of Colorado Boulder
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ACCOUNTING RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0021-8456
• DOI: 10.1111/1475-679X.12200
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 521-579
• 关键词: labor-market; unemployment-insurance; executive-compensation; corporate governance; job displacement; field experiment; turnover; duration; search; firm

摘要

We investigate executive employment gaps (hereafter, gaps) between the appointment of an external CEO at a public firm and the individual's prior executive position at a public company. These gaps cannot be reliably obtained from common databases. We hand-collect data for externally hired CEOs at public companies from 1992 to 2014. These CEOs represent approximately 40% of the 5,095 CEO successions and have a mean gap of 1.9 years. The gap increases to 3.2 years for the subset of new hires with a gap. We hypothesize that labor market frictions and executive skill sets contribute to the existence and length of these gaps. Using theories from labor economics, we predict (equilibrium) associations between two measures of fit (executive compensation and long-term match quality) and gaps (both existence and length). Finally, we provide descriptive evidence on what executives do (e.g., sit on boards, work for private consulting companies, or consume leisure) during their gaps. This project was subject to and published through a registered report process. Any tests that were not included in the accepted proposal are marked as unplanned analyses.