【Brownbag】Hazed and confused: The effect of pollution exposure on CEO risk-taking
2023/11/24
研討會日期 : 2023-11-24
時間 : 12:10
主講人 : Professor YiLin Wu
地點 : Conference Room B110
演講者簡介 : Professor YiLin Wu received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 2001. She is currently a Professor at National Taiwan University. Her research interests are Corporate finance, Private Placement, Corporate Governance, and Market Microstructure and Investments.
演講摘要 : Over the past several decades, a growing literature has documented the adverse health effects of pollution at the individual level. In this paper, we document the detrimental impact of exogenous exposure to pollution on CEOs. Specifically, we draw on the extensive medical literature documenting the adverse cognitive and behavioral outcomes caused by developmental toxicants released by Superfund sites in the U.S., which were plausibly unknown to the parents when the CEOs were in utero. We find that CEOs with greater prenatal exposure to Superfund sites take
more risks, but the risks do not pay off, adversely affecting the firms' performances and the CEOs’ careers. Our results demonstrate the role that exposure to pollution plays in affecting CEO risktaking and point to a large indirect effect of pollution on society beyond the immediate health effects.
