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The Political Polarization of Corporate America

Author

Listed:
  • Vyacheslav Fos
  • Elisabeth Kempf
  • Margarita Tsoutsoura

Abstract

U.S. executives are increasingly segregating by political party. Using voter registration records for top executives of S&P 1500 firms between 2008 and 2022, we document that while the executive pool shifted toward Democrats, partisan segregation across firms increased sharply. Intensifying segregation offsets 74% of the decline in team-level homogeneity implied by changing party composition. Turnover is the driving force: politically misaligned executives are more likely to depart, and executives who join top teams increasingly match the team’s partisan majority. The trend accelerates after the 2016 presidential election, marking an inflection point in the political polarization of corporate America.

Suggested Citation

  • Vyacheslav Fos & Elisabeth Kempf & Margarita Tsoutsoura, 2022. "The Political Polarization of Corporate America," NBER Working Papers 30183, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30183
    Note: CF POL
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    Cited by:

    1. Hoang, Thao & Ngo, Phong T.H. & Zhang, Le, 2025. "Polarized corporate boards," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Pietro Battiston & Marco Magnani & Dimitri Paolini & Luca Rossi, 2025. "Country Music: Positional Voting and Strategic Behavior," Discussion Papers 2025/322, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    3. Libertad González & Luis Guirola & Blanca Zapater, 2026. "Partisan abortions," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 39(1), pages 1-26, March.
    4. Kempf, Elisabeth & Luo, Mancy & Schäfer, Larissa & Tsoutsoura, Margarita, 2023. "Political ideology and international capital allocation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(2), pages 150-173.
    5. Gaia Dossi & Marta Morando, 2025. "Polarized Technologies," CEP Discussion Papers dp2116, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    6. Ambrocio, Gene & Hasan, Iftekhar, 2022. "Belief polarization and Covid-19," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 10/2022, Bank of Finland.
    7. Bindal, Shradha & Joseph, Kissan & Meschke, Felix, 2025. "Corporate shutdowns in the time of Covid-19," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance

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