Finance Seminar with Michael Ewens, Columbia Business School

The Department of Finance is proud to announce the upcoming seminar with Michael Ewens, Columbia Business School

Michael Ewens, will present: Corporate Hierarchy 

Abstract:
We introduce a novel measure of corporate hierarchies for over 3,100 U.S. public firms. This measure is obtained from online resumes of 16 million employees and a network estimation technique that allows us to identify hierarchical layers. Equipped with this measure, we document several facts about corporate hierarchies. Firms have on average ten hierarchical layers and a pyramidal organizational structure. More hierarchical firms have a more educated workforce, higher internal promotion rates, and longer employee tenure. Their operating performance is higher, but they face higher administrative costs. They are more active acquirers and produce more patents, but not higher-quality patents. They exhibit lower stock return volatility and more stable cash flows. We also examine how companies adjust their hierarchies in response to demand and knowledge shocks. We find that biotech companies increased their number of layers following the Covid-19 pandemic, while companies flattened their hierarchies following the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. These findings are consistent with the theoretical predictions of existing models of corporate hierarchies.

Location:
Solbjerg Plads 3
2000 Frederiksberg
Room: SPs03