Published in:Bank of Italy Temi di Discussione (Working Paper) ; No. 1278
Extent:
1 Online-Ressource (50 p)
Language:
English
DOI:
10.2139/ssrn.3659493
Identifier:
Origination:
Footnote:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments June 26, 2020 erstellt
Description:
We examine how the size of the corporate directors' labor market affects the quality of board appointments in Italian private firms. To establish the causality of the relationship, we exploit exogenous variations in firms' access to non-local potential directors following the gradual introduction of a high-speed train, which improved rail connections between cities. Using administrative data on board members belonging to the universe of limited liability companies and a two-way fixed-effects model, we obtain time-invariant measures of firm and director quality. We demonstrate that a positive shock to the non-local director supply increases positive assortative matching between firms and directors. High-quality firms improve the quality of their boards, while lower-quality firms attract lower quality directors. The effect arises from a more active re-matching along the high-speed train line. Our results further suggest that the private firms' boards with higher quality directors are associated with higher firm growth and productivity, and a lower probability of default