Labor Market Benefit of Disaggregated Disclosure
57 Pages Posted: 14 Sep 2020 Last revised: 14 Jan 2021
Date Written: December 21, 2020
Abstract
Asymmetric information is a fundamental friction that results in mismatches and efficiency losses in the labor market. In this paper, we posit that more disaggregated financial disclosure from a CEO candidate’s prior employer can help the hiring firm better assess the possible fit between its operational needs and the candidate’s skill set. Using a mandatory segment reporting reform in the U.S. (SFAS 131) as an exogenous shock to disclosure disaggregation, we find a significant increase in the firm-CEO match quality when the hiring firm has access to more disaggregated segment information about the external candidate’s past employment. Further, the improvement in firm-CEO matching is greater when segment information is incrementally more useful for evaluation of candidate skills. These findings reveal a novel labor market benefit of disaggregated disclosure: alleviating pre-hiring information deficiencies and facilitating efficient allocation of CEO talent across firms.
Keywords: asymmetric information, disclosure disaggregation, matching, labor market frictions, CEO hiring, executive labor market
JEL Classification: D82, D83, M41, J23, J24
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
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