Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Ilona Babenko
Author-Name: Viktar Fedaseyeu
Author-Name: Song Zhang
Title: Do CEOs affect employees' political choices?
Abstract: We analyze whether CEOs influence their employees’ political choices whether this influence has implications for firm value. We find that employees donate three times more money to CEO-supported political candidates than to other candidates. This relation also holds around CEO departures, including plausibly exogenous departures due to retirement or death. Equity returns are significantly higher when CEO-supported candidates win elections than when employee-supported candidates win. Further, CEO influence is strongest in firms with the
largest potential benefits from political participation and firms that explicitly advocate for political candidates. Our results suggest that CEOs are a political force that benefits shareholders
Classification-JEL: D72, P48, G30
Keywords: campaign contributions, elections, voting, CEOs, political activism, PACs, political candidates, voter turnout
Length: 58 pages 
Number: 1750
Creation-Date: 2017
File-URL: https://repec.unibocconi.it/baffic/baf/papers/cbafwp1750.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 709
Handle: RePEc:baf:cbafwp:cbafwp1750