Download This PaperThe Politics of CEOs
Journal of Legal Analysis, Vol. 11, 2019, pp.1-45
Harvard Law School John M. Olin Center Discussion Paper No. 1002
European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) - Law Working Paper No. 450/2019
52 Pages Posted: 19 Mar 2019 Last revised: 9 Dec 2019
There are 3 versions of this paper
The Politics of CEOs
The Politics of CEOS
Date Written: March 19, 2019
Abstract
This article studies the political preferences of chief executive officers (CEOs) of public companies. We use Federal Election Commission records to compile a comprehensive database of the political contributions made by more than 3800 individuals who served as CEOs of Standard & Poor’s 1500 companies between 2000 and 2017. We find a substantial preference for Republican candidates. We identify how this pattern is related to the company’s industry, region, and CEO gender. In addition, we show that companies led by Republican CEOs tend to be less transparent to investors with respect to their political spending. Finally, we discuss the policy implications of our analysis.
Keywords: political spending, political contributions, Republicans, Democrats, CEOs, corporate political influence
JEL Classification: G3, G34, G38, K2, K22
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )
c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium