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Political connection, CEO gender, and firm performance

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  • Sun, Rui
  • Zou, Ganna

Abstract

The political connection of a CEO is a determinant of firm performance. Shocks to the CEO's political connection can create fluctuations in firm performance. However, the underlying economic mechanisms between the CEO gender gaps in firm performance and CEO's political connections are not well understood. Using the political leadership transition in 2012 in China as an exogenous shock, we find that the CEO gender gap in firm performance is diminished in response to the more destruction of female CEOs' political connections. We control the firm characteristics by the propensity score matching method, suggesting the change of the political connection is the main reason for the narrowing of the CEO gender gap in firm performance.

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  • Sun, Rui & Zou, Ganna, 2021. "Political connection, CEO gender, and firm performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:71:y:2021:i:c:s0929119921000390
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2021.101918
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