Working Class CEOs: Formation of Occupational Norms and Corporate Labor Policies

We examine the relation between the CEO’s childhood socioeconomic class and corporate labor policies. We find that CEOs raised in low socioeconomic class families are less likely to invest in employee friendly firm policies measured by several types of labor and employment litigation, including litigation by unions, and occupational safety measures. These results are confirmed by crowdsourced employee firm reviews across several workplace dimensions. Our findings are supported by the studies of within-family transmission of occupational knowledge and formation of occupational norms as well as development of empathy and altruistic behaviors in children.

Keywords: CEOs, labor policies, workplace safety, employment and labor litigation

JEL Classification: G02, G3, J5, J8

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Cronqvist, Henrik and Hutton, Irena and Jiang, Danling, Working Class CEOs: Formation of Occupational Norms and Corporate Labor Policies (Novmber 18, 2019). University of Miami Business School Research Paper No. 3501928, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3501928 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3501928