IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/cfrwps/1412r3.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does CEO fitness matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Limbach, Peter
  • Sonnenburg, Florian

Abstract

This study provides evidence suggesting that CEOs' physical fitness has a positive impact on firm value, consistent with the beneficial effects of fitness on, e.g., cognitive functions, stress coping and job performance. For each of the years 2001 to 2011, we define S&P 1500 CEOs as fit if they finish a marathon. CEO fitness is also associated with higher firm profitability and higher M&A announcement returns. Our identification strategy includes CEO-firm fixed effects, instrumental variables, permutation tests, random effects, and time-varying CEO, firm and industry effects. An additional analysis of sudden CEO deaths, based on a fitness measure not limited to running, confirms our results.

Suggested Citation

  • Limbach, Peter & Sonnenburg, Florian, 2015. "Does CEO fitness matter?," CFR Working Papers 14-12 [rev.3], University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:cfrwps:1412r3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/123715/1/841379122.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Agarwal, Vikas & Ma, Linlin, 2013. "Managerial multitasking in the mutual fund industry," CFR Working Papers 13-10, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    2. Sara B. Moeller & Frederik P. Schlingemann & René M. Stulz, 2005. "Wealth Destruction on a Massive Scale? A Study of Acquiring‐Firm Returns in the Recent Merger Wave," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(2), pages 757-782, April.
    3. Marianne Bertrand & Antoinette Schoar, 2003. "Managing with Style: The Effect of Managers on Firm Policies," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1169-1208.
    4. Adams, Renée & Almeida, Heitor & Ferreira, Daniel, 2009. "Understanding the relationship between founder-CEOs and firm performance," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 136-150, January.
    5. Baule, Rainer & Korn, Olaf & Saßning, Sven, 2013. "Which beta is best? On the information content of option-implied betas," CFR Working Papers 13-11, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    6. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769.
    7. Renée B. Adams & Heitor Almeida & Daniel Ferreira, 2005. "Powerful CEOs and Their Impact on Corporate Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(4), pages 1403-1432.
    8. Liu, Baixiao & McConnell, John J., 2013. "The role of the media in corporate governance: Do the media influence managers' capital allocation decisions?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(1), pages 1-17.
    9. Zorn, Christopher, 2005. "A Solution to Separation in Binary Response Models," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 157-170, April.
    10. Cláudia Custódio & Daniel Metzger, 2013. "How Do CEOs Matter? The Effect of Industry Expertise on Acquisition Returns," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(8), pages 2008-2047.
    11. Kenneth M. Lehn & Mengxin Zhao, 2006. "CEO Turnover after Acquisitions: Are Bad Bidders Fired?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1759-1811, August.
    12. Fahlenbrach, Rüdiger, 2009. "Founder-CEOs, Investment Decisions, and Stock Market Performance," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(2), pages 439-466, April.
    13. Bang Dang Nguyen & Kasper Meisner Nielsen, 2014. "What Death Can Tell: Are Executives Paid for Their Contributions to Firm Value?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(12), pages 2994-3010, December.
    14. repec:bla:jfinan:v:59:y:2004:i:6:p:2719-2743 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Custódio, Cláudia & Metzger, Daniel, 2014. "Financial expert CEOs: CEO׳s work experience and firm׳s financial policies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 125-154.
    16. Kamstra, Mark J. & Kramer, Lisa A. & Levi, Maurice D. & Wermers, Russ, 2017. "Seasonal Asset Allocation: Evidence from Mutual Fund Flows," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(1), pages 71-109, February.
    17. Benmelech, Efraim & Frydman, Carola, 2015. "Military CEOs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 43-59.
    18. K. J. Martijn Cremers & Roberta Romano, 2011. "Institutional Investors and Proxy Voting on Compensation Plans: The Impact of the 2003 Mutual Fund Voting Disclosure Rule," American Law and Economics Review, American Law and Economics Association, vol. 13(1), pages 220-268.
    19. Alam, Zinat S. & Chen, Mark A. & Ciccotello, Conrad S. & Ryan, Harley E., 2014. "Does the Location of Directors Matter? Information Acquisition and Board Decisions," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(1), pages 131-164, February.
    20. Adams, Renée & Keloharju, Matti & Knüpfer, Samuli, 2018. "Are CEOs born leaders? Lessons from traits of a million individuals," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(2), pages 392-408.
    21. Kathleen Fuller & Jeffry Netter & Mike Stegemoller, 2002. "What Do Returns to Acquiring Firms Tell Us? Evidence from Firms That Make Many Acquisitions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(4), pages 1763-1793, August.
    22. Brinkmann, Felix & Kempf, Alexander & Korn, Olaf, 2013. "Forward-looking measures of higher-order dependencies with an application to portfolio selection," CFR Working Papers 13-08, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    23. Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate & Jon Yan, 2011. "Overconfidence and Early‐Life Experiences: The Effect of Managerial Traits on Corporate Financial Policies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(5), pages 1687-1733, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joseph Raffiee & Daniel Fehder & Florenta Teodoridis, 2022. "Revealing the revealed preferences of public firm CEOs and top executives: A new database from credit card spending," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(10), pages 2042-2065, October.
    2. Harri Raisio & Tero Kuorikoski & Tero Rantala & Mikko Rask, 2021. "“After All, No One Is Superhuman Here”: An Analysis of the Perceived Effects of Managerial Athleticism," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-15, October.
    3. Dong, Yizhe & Duan, Tinghua & Hou, Wenxuan & Liu, Yue (Lucy), 2019. "Athletes in boardrooms: Evidence from the world," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 165-183.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Limbach, Peter & Sonnenburg, Florian, 2014. "CEO fitness and firm value," CFR Working Papers 14-12 [rev.], University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    2. Limbach, Peter & Sonnenburg, Florian, 2014. "CEO fitness and firm value," CFR Working Papers 14-12, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    3. Betzer, André & Ibel, Maximilian & Lee, Hye Seung & Limbach, Peter & Salas, Jesus M., 2016. "Are generalists beneficial to corporate shareholders? Evidence from sudden deaths," CFR Working Papers 16-12, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    4. Jaspersen, Stefan & Limbach, Peter, 2020. "Screening Discrimination in Financial Markets: Evidence from CEO-Fund Manager Dyads," CFR Working Papers 17-02, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR), revised 2020.
    5. Brochet, Francois & Limbach, Peter & Schmid, Markus M. & Scholz-Daneshgari, Meik, 2019. "CEO tenure and firm value," CFR Working Papers 16-11, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR), revised 2019.
    6. Gounopoulos, Dimitrios & Pham, Hang, 2018. "Specialist CEOs and IPO survival," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 217-243.
    7. Limbach, Peter & Schmid, Markus & Scholz, Meik, 2015. "Do CEOs Matter? Corporate Performance and the CEO Life Cycle," Working Papers on Finance 1511, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance, revised Apr 2016.
    8. Serfling, Matthew A., 2014. "CEO age and the riskiness of corporate policies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 251-273.
    9. Colak, Gonul & Liljeblom, Eva, 2022. "Easy cleanups or forbearing improvements: The effect of CEO tenure on successor’s performance," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    10. Cláudia Custódio & Stephan Siegel, 2020. "Are chief executive officers more likely to be first-borns?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-17, June.
    11. Dahm, Laura K. & Sorhage, Christoph, 2015. "Milk or wine: Mutual funds' (dis)economies of life," CFR Working Papers 15-05, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    12. Islam, Emdad & Zein, Jason, 2020. "Inventor CEOs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 505-527.
    13. Mark Humphery‐Jenner & Emdad Islam & Lubna Rahman & Jo‐Ann Suchard, 2022. "Powerful CEOs and Corporate Governance," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), pages 135-188, March.
    14. Adams, Renée & Keloharju, Matti & Knüpfer, Samuli, 2018. "Are CEOs born leaders? Lessons from traits of a million individuals," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(2), pages 392-408.
    15. Jacobsen, Stacey, 2014. "The death of the deal: Are withdrawn acquisition deals informative of CEO quality?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(1), pages 54-83.
    16. André Betzer & Maximilian Ibel & Hye Seung (Grace) Lee & Peter Limbach & Jesus M. Salas, 2017. "Are Generalists Beneficial to Corporate Shareholders? Evidence from Sudden Deaths," Schumpeter Discussion Papers SDP16009, Universitätsbibliothek Wuppertal, University Library.
    17. Gokkaya, Sinan & Liu, Xi & Stulz, René M., 2023. "Do firms with specialized M&A staff make better acquisitions?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(1), pages 75-105.
    18. Yun Shen, 2021. "CEO characteristics: a review of influential publications and a research agenda," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 361-385, March.
    19. Cici, Gjergji & Gehde-Trapp, Monika & Göricke, Marc-André & Kempf, Alexander, 2014. "What they did in their previous life: The investment value of mutual fund managers' experience outside the financial sector," CFR Working Papers 14-11, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    20. King, Timothy & Srivastav, Abhishek & Williams, Jonathan, 2016. "What's in an education? Implications of CEO education for bank performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 287-308.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    CEO heterogeneity; firm value; mergers and acquisitions; physical fitness;
    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
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:cfrwps:1412r3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cfkoede.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.