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We examine the contractual implications of a lender’s trust for corporate loans. We measure how trusting a lender is using the average trust attitude in the chief executive officer’s ancestral country of origin. We find that banks with trusting CEOs charge lower interest rates in U.S. syndicated loans. This effect is identified within existing lender–borrower relationships and similar types of loans. Further analyses indicate that trust reduces the cost of credit by boosting the perceived credibility of borrower information and by mitigating contracting problems. We corroborate our findings by conducting a survey of loan officers with experience in loan syndication. This paper was accepted by Gustavo Manso, finance. Supplemental Material: The internet appendix and data are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4371 .

DIW Wochenbericht

DIW Weekly Report

The upward trend in women’s representation on executive and supervisory boards of major companies in Germany continued in 2022, although the overall momentum has slowed yet again. Growth on executive boards in particular has slowed, as the most recent DIW Berlin Women Executives Barometer shows: Following a significant increase at the 200 largest companies from 2020 to 2021, there was only a one-percentage-point increase to just under 16 percent in the share of women on executive boards in 2022. The greatest increases were in the DAX-40 companies, where there was a share of women on executive boards of over 20 percent for the first time, and companies with government-owned shares, where the share reached 30 percent for the first time. A similar development can be seen in supervisory boards, albeit on a higher level. This development suggests that the companies subject to the inclusion requirement for executive boards, which has been in effect since 2021, implemented it quickly, but have since slowed their efforts. With the Equal Participation of Men and Women in Leadership Positions Act and its successor, policymakers have recently significantly improved the conditions for more women in top bodies. Now companies must do the work, as gender parity remains a distant prospect in many places. Most importantly, companies should make efforts to create an inclusive work culture., DIW Weekly Report

Im Rahmen ihrer Jahresabschlüsse müssen viele Unternehmen in Deutschland nicht nur über ihre finanziellen Kennzahlen berichten. Seit einigen Jahren verlangt der Gesetzgeber vermehrt auch Auskünfte zu nichtfinanziellen Aspekten wie der Beteiligung von Frauen an Führungspositionen. Dieser zweite Teil des DIW Managerinnen-Barometers 2023 zeigt auf Basis einer quantitativen Textanalyse von Unternehmensberichten, dass die großen börsennotierten Konzerne in Deutschland die Vorgaben sehr unterschiedlich umsetzen. Zwar hat die Berichterstattung über Frauen und Führungspositionen entsprechend der Vorgaben im Untersuchungszeitraum von 2009 bis 2020 insgesamt stark zugenommen. Allerdings treten auch deutliche Unterschiede in der Themenschwerpunktsetzung zu Tage: So findet sich eine gleichstellungsorientierte Gruppe von Unternehmen, die umfangreich über konkrete Maßnahmen zur Erhöhung des Frauenanteils in Führungspositionen berichtet. Diese Gruppe weist eine deutlich höhere Beteiligung von Frauen im Aufsichtsrat auf als Unternehmen, die eher complianceorientiert berichten und in erster Linie daran interessiert scheinen, die gesetzlichen Vorgaben zu erfüllen. Die Berichterstattung der Unternehmen zu Frauen und Führungspositionen ist also ein Indikator und damit nützliches Signal nach außen, wie ernst es Unternehmen mit der Gleichstellung ist., DIW Wochenbericht

We study the association between the gender of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the probability that firms go public through an Initial Public Offering (IPO), using data for the full population of Swedish IPO firms from 2005-2017, and matched private firms. We find that firms that go public are less likely to have a female CEO. The results are robust when we test for a change of CEO: firms that switch from a male to a female CEO are less likely to go public, and when we consider the gender balance among the board of directors.

This second report in the DIW Berlin Women Executives Barometer 2022 explores the designs and effects of gender quotas across Europe, coming to the conclusion that they are an effective instrument for increasing the share of women in top positions at large companies. Furthermore, the quotas differ greatly between the countries, for example in regard to the number of companies subject to the quota, the concrete quota targets, or sanctions. Using European data for the years 2003 to 2021, this report shows that the group of nine EU countries that have introduced a gender quota has a significantly greater share of women on top decision-making bodies than the group of the non-quota EU countries (almost 35 percent compared to 22 percent). Generally, the share of female non-executive directors (in Germany, this refers to supervisory board members) is higher than the share of female executive directors. The effectiveness of quota regulations has been confirmed by calculations that take into account that certain factors differ by country, such as cultural norms regarding gender roles or labor market policy and family policy. Against this background, the President of the European Commission’s initiative to advance a draft directive for more equal representation of men and women on the boards of large companies appears helpful. The proposal is currently being blocked in the Council of the EU. If this changes, the share of women on boards could increase, especially in the countries that do not yet have a mandatory gender quota., DIW Weekly Report

DIW Wochenbericht

DIW Weekly Report

There was a significant increase in the number of women on executive boards of large companies in Germany from 2020 to 2021 after years of slow progress: In fall 2021, there were 139 women on the executive boards of the 200 largest companies, 38 more than in 2020. This is an increase of a good three percentage points to almost 15 percent, the largest seen since the beginning of the DIW Berlin Women Executives Barometer in 2006. There were also markedly more female executive board members on average in the DAX companies. The inclusion requirement for executive boards (Beteiligungsgebot für Vorstände), which was adopted in 2021 and comes into effect in August 2022, has clearly resulted in anticipation effects: The share of female executive board members of companies subject to the requirement has increased from a good 14 percent to a good 19 percent. In contrast, the share of female executive board members of companies not subject to the requirement only increased from 11 percent to around 14 percent. Similar to the gender quota for supervisory boards, this shows that statutory requirements are an effective instrument for increasing the share of women on boards. The momentum in supervisory boards, however, was markedly weaker in 2021 than in previous years., DIW Weekly Report

We study whether CEOs of private firms differ from other people with regard to their strategic decisions and beliefs about others’ strategy choices. Such differences are interesting since CEOs make decisions that are economically more relevant, because they affect not only their own utility or the well-being of household members, but the utility of many stakeholders inside and outside of the organization. They also play a central role in shaping values and norms in society. We expect differences between both groups, because CEOs are more experienced with strategic decision making than comparable people in other professional roles. Yet, due to the difficulties in recruiting this high-profile group for academic research, few studies have explored how CEOs make incentivized decisions in strategic games under strict controls and how their choices in such games differ from those made by others. Our study combines a stratified random sample of 200 CEOs of medium-sized firms with a carefully selected control group of 200 comparable people. All subjects participated in three incentivized games—Prisoner’s Dilemma, Chicken, Battle-of-the-Sexes. Beliefs were elicited for each game. We report substantial and robust differences in both behavior and beliefs between the CEOs and the control group. The most striking results are that CEOs do not best respond to beliefs; they cooperate more, play less hawkish and thereby earn much more than the control group.

DIW Wochenbericht

Die Frauenanteile in den Spitzengremien großer Unternehmen in Deutschland sind im vergangenen Jahr weiter gestiegen. In den 200 umsatzstärksten Unternehmen gab es im vierten Quartal des Jahres 2020 mit 101 Vorständinnen sieben mehr als ein Jahr zuvor. Hier wie auch in einigen anderen Unternehmensgruppen gewann die Entwicklung aber kaum an Dynamik. So lag der entsprechende Frauenanteil bei den Top-200-Unternehmen mit rund zwölf Prozent lediglich um gut einen Prozentpunkt höher als im Jahr zuvor. Bei den DAX-30-Unternehmen gab es sogar erstmals seit 2013 eine Stagnation. Schwung könnte die zu Beginn des Jahres vom Bundeskabinett beschlossene Mindestbeteiligung für Vor stände bringen: In ihrer jetzigen Ausgestaltung gilt sie für aktuell 74 Unternehmen, von denen etwa 30 sie noch nicht erfüllen. Tun sie dies, würde der Anteil der Vorständinnen in den unter die Regelung fallenden Unternehmen von etwa 13 auf 21 Prozent steigen. Zudem wären gleichstellungspolitische Impulse weit über die Vorstandsetagen hinaus möglich. Dass gesetzlich verbindliche Vorgaben wirken, unterstreicht die Entwicklung in den Aufsichtsräten., DIW Wochenbericht

Influencers are the new brand narrative. This is why many companies and institutions are positioning their executives -using their full names- to build loyalty amongst their diverse client base. On the other hand, the reputation strategy known as ''CEO Executive Visibility'' aims to promote a brand by putting the spotlight on its top management and aligning their character traits with the values that the organisation wishes to transmit, thus capturing new audiences, improving follower loyalty and generating more engagement. Along these lines, and using content analysis and quantitative research methods, and combining economic and communication factors as theoretical underpinnings, this investigation examines how the chairpersons of the companies listed in the Ibex 35 (the Spanish benchmark index) use the main social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and personal blogs). The results obtained show how executive visibility strategies are applied in Spain and who the main influencers in this financial environment are. This research evidences that the chairpersons of Ibex 35 companies do not post consistently on social media and that there is a link between the public image of a company's top management and the perception of a company and its commitment to its audience. This article is part of the Research Project CSO2017-88620-P, funded by the Spanish Research Agency within the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2013-2016.

DIW Wochenbericht

Die Frauenanteile in den Vorständen großer Unternehmen in Deutschland sind im vergangenen Jahr etwas stärker gestiegen als in den Jahren zuvor. Die 200 umsatzstärksten Unternehmen knackten erstmals die Zehn-Prozent-Marke: 14 Vorstandsposten mehr als noch im Jahr zuvor – nämlich 94 von 907 – hatten Frauen inne. Auch bei den größten börsennotierten und bei den Unternehmen, an denen der Bund beteiligt ist, war die Entwicklung im Vorstand etwas dynamischer – ebenso bei Banken und Versicherungen. Gleichwohl kann noch keine Rede davon sein, dass in sämtlichen Chefetagen das Umdenken begonnen hätte. Bei genauerem Hinsehen vollzieht sich die Entwicklung in den Chefetagen – zumal bei Betrachtung mehrjähriger Zeiträume – nach wie vor in Trippelschritten. Hinzu kommt: In den Aufsichtsräten ging es langsamer voran als in den Jahren zuvor, bei Banken und Versicherungen sank der Frauenanteil sogar. Der gesellschaftliche und politische Druck, mehr Frauen in Führungspositionen zu bringen, könnte sich schon bald noch verstärken. In eigenem Interesse, auch mit Blick auf ihren Fachkräftebedarf in der Zukunft, sollten die Unternehmen ihre Anstrengungen dringend erhöhen., DIW Wochenbericht

A growing literature is devoted to understand how companies react to major external shocks. Contributing to this research, we study how the presence of families in corporate ownership and leadership affected the reaction of firms to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from Italy, we find that family firms exhibited higher market performance and operating profitability than other firms during the pandemic period. This result is stronger for companies without relevant minority investors and with multiple family shareholders. Delving into the mechanisms, we show that the outperformance of family firms is driven by a more efficient use of labor and a lower drop in revenues. Collectively, our results expand existing research by showing how family ties shape the response to adverse events.

The purpose of this article is to assess how management level as a contextual factor interacts with personal characteristics in predicting expatriate performance. In particular, we focused on proactive personality (the individual’s disposition to change the organizational environment) and self-control (the individual’s disposition to change oneself to fit the organizational environment). Surveying 307 business expatriate managers in China, we hypothesized that in relation to work outcomes, the effect of proactive personality would be stronger for CEOs while the effect of self-control would be stronger for non-CEOs. We found both proactive personality and self-control to have favorable effects on our performance indicators: job performance, effectiveness, and time to proficiency. In line with our prediction, we also found the effect of proactive personality on job performance to be stronger for CEO expatriates while the effect of self-control on performance was stronger for non-CEO expatriate managers.

This paper compares two popular views on the evolution of income inequality. The article by Simon Kuznets, which was published in American Economic Review in 1955, considers inequality as a byproduct of economic growth and suggests that a relatively rich economy should also be less unequal. In contrast, Thomas Piketty indicates that inequality is progressing, and an internationally coordinated policy is required to bring inequality under control. My paper applies the arguments of Kuznets and Piketty to the problem of income inequality in modern Russia.

Producción Científica, Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Sites (PICS) have been widely used by the remote sensing community in recent decades for post-launch absolute calibration, cross-calibration, and the monitoring of radiometric stability. The Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) has established several official PICS for these purposes. Of these, Libya-4 is the most commonly used, due to its high uniformity and stability. The site was chosen as a large-area site for medium resolution sensors, and with high-resolution sensors now common, smaller sites are being identified. This work has identified an improved area of interest (AOI) within Libya-4 by using combined Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 data. The Optimized Ground Target (OGT) was determined by calculating the coefficient of variation along with the use of a quasi-Newton optimization algorithm combined with the Basin–Hopping global optimization technique to constrain a search area small enough to perform a final brute-force refinement. The Coefficient of Variation CV of the proposed OGT is significantly lower than that in the original CEOS area, with differences between the CV of both zones in the order of 1% in the visible near-infrared (VNIR) bands. This new AOI has the potential to improve the cross-calibration between high-resolution sensors using the PICS methodology through an OGT with more homogeneous and stable characteristics.

We show that officer training during the Swedish military service has a strong positive effect on the probability of attaining a managerial position later in life. The most intense type of officer training increases the probability of becoming a civilian manager by about 5 percentage points, or 75%. Officer training also increases educational attainment post–military service. We argue that the effect on civilian leadership could be due to the acquisition of leadership-specific skills during the military service, and we present suggestive evidence related to alternative mechanisms, such as signaling, networks, and training unrelated to leadership.

The gender quota for supervisory boards in Germany is effective: by the end of 2017, the proportion of women on the supervisory boards of a good 100 companies that are subject to the quota had risen to 30 percent—three percentage points more than in the previous year. Almost two-thirds of the companies now have supervisory boards with at least 30 percent female members. A European comparison also shows that quota laws work—particularly under the threat of sanctions. So far, there has not been a gender quota introduced for executive boards in Germany. The development of the proportion of women on these boards has almost come to a standstill: of the 200 companies that had generated the most revenue, the proportion of women on each one’s executive board at the end of 2017 was around eight percent. In order to bring more women to executive boards and keep them there, it is in their interest for companies to quickly build up and expand their pool of potential female candidates. The next federal government should support this process of reformation by improving general conditions, including strengthening the so far voluntary guidelines for women in high leadership positions., DIW Weekly Report

Die Geschlechterquote für Aufsichtsräte in Deutschland greift: In den Kontrollgremien der gut 100 Unternehmen, die an die Quote gebunden sind, ist der Frauenanteil bis Ende 2017 auf durchschnittlich gut 30 Prozent gestiegen – das waren knapp drei Prozentpunkte mehr als im Jahr zuvor. Fast zwei Drittel der Unternehmen hatten mindestens 30 Prozent Frauen im Aufsichtsrat. In der Gruppe der umsatzstärksten 200 Unternehmen, in denen der Frauenanteil im Aufsichtsrat Ende vergangenen Jahres im Durchschnitt bei knapp einem Viertel lag, war dies hingegen nur bei 37,5 Prozent der Unternehmen der Fall. Auch ein europäischer Vergleich zeigt, dass Quotenregelungen wirken – insbesondere, wenn Sanktionen drohen. Für Vorstände gibt es in Deutschland bislang keine Geschlechterquote. Dort herrscht mittlerweile beinahe Stillstand: In den 200 umsatzstärksten Unternehmen lag der Anteil der Vorständinnen Ende 2017 weiterhin bei rund acht Prozent. Um nachhaltig mehr Frauen in Vorstände zu bringen, sollten die Unternehmen im eigenen Interesse ihren Pool potentieller Kandidatinnen zügig auf- und ausbauen. Diesen Erneuerungsprozess sollte die nächste Bundesregierung durch bessere Rahmenbedingungen unterstützen. Dazu zählt gegebenenfalls, die bislang freiwilligen Vorgaben für Frauen in hohen Führungspositionen zu verschärfen., DIW Wochenbericht

Agriculture is a highly dynamic process in space and time, with many applications requiring data with both a relatively high temporal resolution (at least every 8 days) and fine-to-moderate (FTM < 100 m) spatial resolution. The relatively infrequent revisit of FTM optical satellite observatories coupled with the impacts of cloud occultation have translated into a barrier for the derivation of agricultural information at the regional-to-global scale. Drawing upon the Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring (GEOGLAM) Initiative’s general satellite Earth observation (EO) requirements for monitoring of major production areas, Whitcraft et al. (this issue) have described where, when, and how frequently satellite data acquisitions are required throughout the agricultural growing season at 0.05°, globally. The majority of areas and times of year require multiple revisits to probabilistically yield a view at least 70%, 80%, 90%, or 95% clear within eight days, something that no present single FTM optical observatory is capable of delivering. As such, there is a great potential to meet these moderate spatial resolution optical data requirements through a multi-space agency/multi-mission constellation approach. This research models the combined revisit capabilities of seven hypothetical constellations made from five satellite sensors—Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (Landsat 7 ETM+), Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager and Thermal Infrared Sensor (Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS), Resourcesat-2 Advanced Wide Field Sensor (Resourcesat-2 AWiFS), Sentinel-2A Multi-Spectral Instrument (MSI), and Sentinel-2B MSI—and compares these capabilities with the revisit frequency requirements for a reasonably cloud-free clear view within eight days throughout the agricultural growing season. Supplementing Landsat 7 and 8 with missions from different space agencies leads to an improved capacity to meet requirements, with Resourcesat-2 providing the largest incremental improvement in requirements met. The best performing constellation can meet 71%–91% of the requirements for a view at least 70% clear, and 45%–68% of requirements for a view at least 95% clear, varying by month. Still, gaps exist in persistently cloudy regions/periods, highlighting the need for data coordination and for consideration of active EO for agricultural monitoring. This research highlights opportunities, but not actual acquisition rates or data availability/access; systematic acquisitions over actively cropped agricultural areas as well as a policy which guarantees continuous access to high quality, interoperable data are essential in the effort to meet EO requirements for agricultural monitoring.

Researching the managerial perspective of performance can contribute to a better understanding of firm performance, and offer a valuable contribution to research on objective performance measurement. The aim of this article is to examine how managers evaluate firm performance and which factors, in their opinion, have the biggest influence on performance. We particularly wanted to investigate the influence of top management and owners on firm performance. We conducted a qualitative study among the CEOs of some of the most successful Slovenian firms. The results show that CEOs connect positive performance with long-term growth and satisfying the needs of key stakeholders (employees, customers and owners), but short-term positive financial performance represents the basic foundation. The second most important factor is a united top management, capable of generating new ideas and acting as a role model to employees. This can lead to a higher degree of engagement by employees and a better understanding of the firm's goals. Owners can contribute to a positive firm performance with their active, strategic and long-term orientation, and with their ability to set clear goals and to trust top management in the long run. Another important factor that influences firm performance is the ownership structure. In the opinion of CEOs, dominant and private ownership has a more positive impact on firm performance than dispersed and state ownership. The present research findings provide several examples of good and bad practice, and highlight opportunities for further research, from an in-depth study of individual factors of firm performance to the search for a more comprehensive model of performance factors, based on a larger sample of CEOs and other managers.

International audience; The OLIVE (On Line Interactive Validation Exercise) platform is dedicated to the validation of global biophysical products such as LAI (Leaf Area Index) and FAPAR (Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation). It was developed under the framework of the CEOS (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites) Land Product Validation (LPV) sub-group. OLIVE has three main objectives: (i) to provide a consistent and centralized information on the definition of the biophysical variables, as well as a description of the main available products and their performances (ii) to provide transparency and traceability by an online validation procedure compliant with the CEOS LPV and QA4EO (Quality Assurance for Earth Observation) recommendations (iii) and finally, to provide a tool to benchmark new products, update product validation results and host new ground measurement sites for accuracy assessment. The functionalities and algorithms of OLIVE are described to provide full transparency of its procedures to the community. The validation process and typical results are illustrated for three FAPAR products: GEOV1 (VEGETATION sensor), MGVIo (MERIS sensor) and MODIS collection 5 FPAR. OLIVE is available on the European Space Agency CAL/VAL portal), including full documentation, validation exercise results, and product extracts.

Vicarious calibration approaches using in situ measurements saw first use in the early 1980s and have since improved to keep pace with the evolution of the radiometric requirements of the sensors that are being calibrated. The advantage of in situ measurements for vicarious calibration is that they can be carried out with traceable and quantifiable accuracy, making them ideal for interconsistency studies of on-orbit sensors. The recent development of automated sites to collect the in situ data has led to an increase in the available number of datasets for sensor calibration. The current work describes the Radiometric Calibration Network (RadCalNet) that is an effort to provide automated surface and atmosphere in situ data as part of a network including multiple sites for the purpose of optical imager radiometric calibration in the visible to shortwave infrared spectral range. The key goals of RadCalNet are to standardize protocols for collecting data, process to top-of-atmosphere reflectance, and provide uncertainty budgets for automated sites traceable to the international system of units. RadCalNet is the result of efforts by the RadCalNet Working Group under the umbrella of the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) Working Group on Calibration and Validation (WGCV) and the Infrared Visible Optical Sensors (IVOS). Four radiometric calibration instrumented sites located in the USA, France, China, and Namibia are presented here that were used as initial sites for prototyping and demonstrating RadCalNet. All four sites rely on collection of data for assessing the surface reflectance as well as atmospheric data over that site. The data are converted to top-of-atmosphere reflectance within RadCalNet and provided through a web portal to allow users to either radiometrically calibrate or verify the calibration of their sensors of interest. Top-of-atmosphere reflectance data with associated uncertainties are available at 10 nm intervals over the 400 nm to 1000 nm spectral range at 30 min intervals for a nadir-viewing geometry. An example is shown demonstrating how top-of-atmosphere data from RadCalNet can be used to determine the interconsistency between two sensors.

The excess molar volume V E data of the binary liquid systems were correlated by the Peng–Robinson–Stryjek–Vera equation of state coupled with two different types of mixing rules: composition dependent van der Waals mixing rule (vdW) and the mixing rule based on the Gupta–Rasmussen–Fredenslund method (GRF), with the NRTL equation as G E model. The results obtained by these models show that type of applied mixing rule, a number and position of interaction parameters are of great importance for a satisfactory correlation of V E data. The GRF mixing rules coupled with the NRTL model gave mostly satisfactory results for V E correlation of the nonideal binary systems of diverse complexity.

The excess molar volume VE of the binary liquid systems acetonitrile methanol and acetonitrile + ethanol, experimentally determined in the previous part, were correlated by the PRSV CEOS coupled with the vdW and TCBT mixing rules. The results obtained show that the number and position of the interaction parameters of these models are of great importance for a satisfactory fitting of VE data. Dopunska molarna zapremina VE binarnih tečnih smeša acetonitril + metanol i acetonitril + etanol, eksperimentalno određena u prethodnom delu rada korelisana je pomoću PRSV jednačine sa vdW i TCBT pravilima mešanja. Dobijeni rezultati pokazuju da je broj i položaj interakcionih parametara u razmatranim modelima od velike važnosti za zadovoljavajuće korelisanje VE podataka.

All that we know about the CEO labour market in China comes from studies of public listed companies and state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This paper is the first to examine the operation of the CEO labour market across all sectors of the Chinese economy. We do so using World Bank enterprise data for the first part of the 21st Century. Incentive schemes are commonplace throughout the economy and include contracts linking CEO pay directly to firm performance, annual bonus schemes, the posting of performance bonds, and holding company stock. These incentive mechanisms appear to complement rather than substitute for one another. The elasticity of pay with respect to company performance is one or more in two-fifths of the cases where CEO's have performance contracts, suggesting many face high-powered incentives. CEO's also face a real dismissal threat and financial penalties if they fail to deliver. Incentive contracts are used to attract the most talented executives, as indicated by educational attainment and position in the Communist Party. However, government involvement in the appointment of a CEO reduces the likelihood that the CEO will receive an incentives-based contract, perhaps because governments appoint "bureaucrats" to perform roles which incorporate social and political as well as economic goals. Firms with good corporate governance are more likely to deploy incentive contracts. A picture emerges of a well-functioning labour market for executives in China that exhibits many of the traits common to CEO labour markets in the West.

We develop a methodology to collect and analyze data on CEOs' time use. The idea - sketched out in a simple theoretical set-up - is that CEO time is a scarce resource and its allocation can help us identify the firm's priorities as well as the presence of governance issues. We follow 94 CEOs of top-600 Italian firms over a pre-specified week and record the time devoted each day to different work activities. We focus on the distinction between time spent with insiders (employees of the firm) and outsiders (people not employed by the firm). Individual CEOs differ systematically in how much time they spend at work and in how much time they devote to insiders vs. outsiders. We analyze the correlation between time use, managerial effort, quality of governance and firm performance, and interpret the empirical findings within two versions of our model, one with effective and one with imperfect corporate governance. The patterns we observe are consistent with the hypothesis that time spent with outsiders is on average less beneficial to the firm and more beneficial to the CEO and that the CEO spends more time with outsiders when governance is poor.

Using a number of theoretical considerations, we define distinct periods of anxiety for key economic agents that are involved in lending decisions; namely, consumers, CEOs, and banks. The main characteristic of anxious periods is that the perceptions and expectations about economic conditions worsen for these agents even though the economy is not in a recession. Subsequently, we study the lending behavior of US banks during the three distinct pools of anxious quarters from 1985-2010, using bank-level data. We find that banks’ lending falls when consumers and banks are anxious, and this effect is more pronounced when banks hold a high level of credit risk. Yet, in those anxious periods that were followed by recessions, the negative impact of anxiety on loan growth is significantly weaker for banks with high-credit risk that points to the existence of a moral-hazard mechanism. We also find significant differentiation in banks’ lending within anxious periods across different loan categories. We contend that these findings point to the identification of an ‘expectations channel’ in banks’ lending that exists throughout the business cycle.

A vast labor literature has found evidence of a “glass ceiling,” whereby women are under-represented among senior management. A key question remains the extent to which this reflects unobserved differences in productivity, preferences, prejudice, or systematically biased beliefs about the ability of female managers. Disentangling these theories would require data on productivity, on the preferences of those who interact with managers, and on perceptions of productivity. Financial markets provide continuous measures of the market's perception of the value of firms, taking account of the beliefs of market participants about the ability of the men and women in senior management. As such, financial data hold the promise of potentially providing insight into the presence of mistake-based discrimination. Specifically, if female-headed firms were systematically under-estimated, this would suggest that female-headed firms would outperform expectations, yielding excess returns. Examining data on S&P 1500 firms over the period 1992–2004 I find no systematic differences in returns to holding stock in female-headed firms, although this result reflects the weak statistical power of our test, rather than a strong inference that financial markets either do or do not under-estimate female CEOs. (JEL: J7, G14, J44)

This paper investigates factors that brought about the surge in manager unethical behavior within the US economy. Key structural causes are the weak internal control, perverse incentives related to managers’ compensation, conflicts of interest in the banking and auditing sectors. Unethical behavior was further enhanced by the large economic noise specific to the IT bubble, which emerged in the late nineties against the background of increased deregulation in the goods and financial markets. The US administration opposed to the proliferation of CEO unethical behavior the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002; we argue why some of its provisions might be taken one step further

We examine the relationship between the employment and compensation of managers and CEOs and the presence of a unionized workforce. We develop a simple efficiency wage model, with a tradeoff between higher wages for workers and more monitoring, which requires more managers. The model also assumes rent sharing between workers, managers and the owners of the firm. Unions, by redistributing rents towards the workers, lead to lower employment and lower pay for managers. Using a variety of data sets, we examine the implications of the model for the relationship between the employment and wages of managers and unionization. We find several results generally consistent with our model. (1) Both a higher fraction of unionization in an industry and region and a higher union wage differential are associated with fewer managers. (2) Managers' wages are about 5 to 7 percent lower in unionized firms. (3) For CEOs the effects are larger: a 10 percent increase in unionization reduces the pay of CEOs by 2.5 percent or more.

L’article, fondé sur une étude de cas d’une société de capital investissement, complète les travaux qui ont souligné l’importance des liens interpersonnels entre entrepreneurs et investisseurs en précisant l’importance des règles organisationnelles dans la création et le maintien de ces relations. Il montre comment l’organisation du travail des capital investisseurs (i.e. des règles formelles et informelles, des procédures et des dispositifs encadrant le travail) permet à ces derniers de construire des liens étroits avec les entrepreneurs tout au long des étapes de l’activité d’investissement. Ce faisant, l’article étend l’analyse de ces relations aux phases de pré-investissement et introduit une dimension organisationnelle à la littérature sur la valeur ajoutée non financière, en précisant les effets bénéfiques cruciaux de mécanismes de type bureaucratiques sur le développement de relations très personnalisées. The article enriches the literature on non-financial value-added, which underlines the importance of interpersonal relationships between entrepreneurs and investors. It draws on a case study of a private equity firm. It shows how the organization of the investors’ work (i.e. formal and informal rules, procedures and systems framing this work) enable investors to develop close relationships with entrepreneurs during all stages of the investment activity. The article introduces an organizational dimension that is often overlooked and broadens the analysis to include pre-investment stages.