Are CEOs Born Leaders? Lessons from Traits of a Million Individuals

60 Pages Posted: 15 May 2014 Last revised: 9 Sep 2017

See all articles by Renee B. Adams

Renee B. Adams

University of Oxford

Matti Keloharju

Aalto University - School of Business; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Samuli Knüpfer

Aalto University School of Business; BI Norwegian Business School; Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)

Date Written: September 3, 2017

Abstract

What makes a successful CEO? We combine a near-exhaustive sample of CEOs of Swedish companies with data on their cognitive and non-cognitive ability and height at age 18. CEOs differ from other high-skill professions most in non-cognitive ability. The median large-company CEO belongs to the top 5% of the population in the combination of the three traits. The traits have a monotonic and close to linear relationship with CEO pay, but their correlations with pay, firm size, and CEO fixed effects in firm policies are relatively low. Traits appear necessary, but not sufficient for making it to the top.

Keywords: CEO, cognitive ability, non-cognitive ability, height, compensation, firm size

JEL Classification: G30, J24, J31

Suggested Citation

Adams, Renée B. and Keloharju, Matti and Knüpfer, Samuli, Are CEOs Born Leaders? Lessons from Traits of a Million Individuals (September 3, 2017). IFN Working Paper No. 1024, FIRN Research Paper No. 2436765, Harvard Business School Research Paper No. 16-044, European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) - Finance Working Paper No. 478/2016, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2436765 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2436765

Renée B. Adams

University of Oxford ( email )

Park End Street
Oxford, OX1 1HP
Great Britain

Matti Keloharju

Aalto University - School of Business ( email )

P.O. Box 21210
AALTO, FI-00076
Finland
+358 40 353 8043 (Phone)

Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) ( email )

Box 55665
Grevgatan 34, 2nd floor
Stockholm, SE-102 15
Sweden

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

London
United Kingdom

Samuli Knüpfer (Contact Author)

Aalto University School of Business

P.O. Box 21210
AALTO, 00076
Finland

HOME PAGE: http://www.samuliknupfer.com

BI Norwegian Business School ( email )

Nydalsveien 37
Oslo, 0442
Norway

Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN)

Box 55665
Grevgatan 34, 2nd floor
Stockholm, SE-102 15
Sweden

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