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CEO personality traits and debt contracting: Evidence from pilot CEOs

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  • Freund, Steven
  • Kovacs, Tunde
  • Nguyen, Nam H.
  • Phan, Hieu V.

Abstract

Using pilot certificates as a proxy for the personality trait of sensation seeking, which captures the desire for varied, novel, and complex personal sensations and experiences, we find that firms with pilot CEOs use longer-maturity debt financing even when it is more costly than shorter-term debt. Our findings are robust to controlling for potential endogenous matching between firms and CEOs. Our evidence indicates that CEOs with sensation-seeking personality traits prefer long-term debt financing to avoid the liquidity risk associated with short-term debt financing that may hamper other corporate activities motivated by their sensation seeking.

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  • Freund, Steven & Kovacs, Tunde & Nguyen, Nam H. & Phan, Hieu V., 2023. "CEO personality traits and debt contracting: Evidence from pilot CEOs," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finana:v:85:y:2023:i:c:s1057521922004008
    DOI: 10.1016/j.irfa.2022.102450
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    CEO personality; Sensation seeking; Debt contracting; Corporate debt maturity; Cost of capital; Liquidity risk;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

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