Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/233600 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 830
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Essen
Abstract: 
We study the effect of the attitudes of a CEO's ancestors on firm performance. To do so, we collect detailed information on emigrants from Italian municipalities during the Age of Mass Migration (1892-1924) from Ellis Island ships lists and use emigration experience as a proxy for ancestors' risk propensity. We adopt an epidemiological approach complemented with an instrumental variables strategy and find that Italian firms managed by a CEO that belongs to a family with past emigration experience tend to perform better and to be more productive. In line with an inter-generational transmission of attitudes hypothesis, we show a positive relationship between the emigration experience of a CEO's ancestors and alternative measures of corporate risk-taking. The attitudes of a CEO's ancestors have as well consequences on firm solvency and on the cost of capital.
Subjects: 
Emigration
Attitudes
Corporate Performance
Mass Migration
JEL: 
G30
M14
Z1
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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