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CEO Selection and Executive Appearance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2022

Douglas O. Cook  and
Shawn Mobbs Open the ORCID record for Shawn Mobbs [Opens in a new window]
Douglas O. Cook
Affiliation:
University of Alabama Culverhouse College of Business dcook@cba.ua.edu
Shawn Mobbs*
Affiliation:
University of Alabama Culverhouse College of Business
*
smobbs@cba.ua.edu (corresponding author)
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Abstract

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Survey assessments have found limited evidence of benefits of executive attractiveness. We use an objective measure of facial attractiveness that is correlated with survey assessments but less noisy and identify several benefits from executive facial attractiveness previously found in the general population but heretofore empirically elusive among executives. We examine the effect of both measures on executive compensation, promotion to CEO and the corresponding shareholder reaction, and promotion to board chair. The objective measure identifies significantly positive labor market effects for executive attractiveness in all outcomes in contrast to survey assessments of attractiveness that do not correlate with any outcome.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis , Volume 58 , Issue 4 , June 2023 , pp. 1582 - 1611
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington

Footnotes

We are grateful to James Bates, Kathleen Centilli, Claiborn (Mac) Fountain, Kellie Hensley, and Katy Wallace for valuable research assistance. We have also benefited from conversations with and comments from Renée Adams, Anup Agrawal, Bruce Barrett, David Becher, Wesley Channell, Tony Cookson, Henrik Cronqvist, Jefferson Duarte (the referee), Daniel Greene, Daniel Hamermesh, Paul Malatesta (the editor), Bill Mayew, Amos Nadler, Micah Officer, Tijana Rajkovic, Jesus Salas, Geoffrey Tate, and seminar participants at The 2014 Financial Management Association Annual Conference, Georgia State University, Louisiana State University, the 2014 Mississippi State University Magnolia Finance Conference, the 2014 Northern Finance Association Annual Meeting, the 2015 European Finance Association Annual Meeting, and the 2016 Society of Financial Studies Cavalcade. Cook gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Ehney A. Camp, Jr., Chair of Finance and Investments.

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