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Quantifying Managerial Ability: A New Measure and Validity Tests

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Demerjian

    (Goizueta Business School, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322)

  • Baruch Lev

    (Stern School of Business, New York University, New York, New York 10012)

  • Sarah McVay

    (David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112)

Abstract

We propose a measure of managerial ability, based on managers' efficiency in generating revenues, which is available for a large sample of firms and outperforms existing ability measures. We find that our measure is strongly associated with manager fixed effects and that the stock price reactions to chief executive officer (CEO) turnovers are positive (negative) when we assess the outgoing CEO as low (high) ability. We also find that replacing CEOs with more (less) able CEOs is associated with improvements (declines) in subsequent firm performance. We conclude with a demonstration of the potential of the measure. We find that the negative relation between equity financing and future abnormal returns documented in prior research is mitigated by managerial ability. Specifically, more able managers appear to utilize equity issuance proceeds more effectively, illustrating that our more precise measure of managerial ability will allow researchers to pursue studies that were previously difficult to conduct. This paper was accepted by Mary E. Barth, accounting.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Demerjian & Baruch Lev & Sarah McVay, 2012. "Quantifying Managerial Ability: A New Measure and Validity Tests," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(7), pages 1229-1248, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:58:y:2012:i:7:p:1229-1248
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1110.1487
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    References listed on IDEAS

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