Political correctness or connectedness - what matters to shareholders

Seminar Aims

The seminar will examine whether it is political connectedness or political correctness that is most valued by financial markets using a variety of event study methodologies.

Event Abstract 

Should a CEO hold onto her political connections even if such connections are widely perceived as politically incorrect? From the viewpoint of shareholders, neither the value of political connectedness nor the value of political correctness are fully understood in countries with strong institutions like the United States. This is mainly because it is often challenging, in practice, to disentangle the value for shareholders of political connections or political statements from that of the underlying political content associated with a certain affiliation. We study which of the two aspects––political correctness or connectedness–– is most valued by financial markets with the help of an empirical setting where these confounding issues are negligible. We use a range of parametric and nonparametric event study methodologies and find that shareholders seem to value political connectedness even when it comes at the cost of being associated with political incorrectness.

Booking

This is an open event; there is no need to book. Please feel free to attend and bring your colleagues, classmates and friends.

Speaker bio 

Mascia Bedendo is a Professor of Finance and the Finance Department Head of Research at the Audencia Business School. In the past, she held positions at Bocconi University and Imperial College Business School. She holds a Ph.D. in Finance and an MSc in Economics and Finance from the University of Warwick, and a BA in Economics and Business from Universita di Bologna. Her research interests lie in the areas of credit risk, credit derivatives, option volatility and the link between credit and equity markets. Her work has been published in leading international journals, such as Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Financial Stability, Journal of Banking and Finance, etc.