Thesis advisor: Donald Cox / Does a CEO’s narcissism influence the company’s stock? Would it matter if it is a media company? The Efficient Market Hypothesis claims that it matters little given market efficiency, as narcissism has been priced in stock based on the Capital Asset Pricing Model. Existing literature is divided on whether CEO narcissism influences corporate efficiency. This paper refines assumptions on asset pricing by indicating when market inefficiency occurs through panel studies, which the Adaptative Market Hypothesis overlooks. A case study on Elon Musk suggests that the CEO’s narcissism with media involvement creates temporary market inefficiency. This paper innovatively combines an event study of Elon Musk's Twitter activities on Tesla and Twitter with a panel analysis of 17 S&P 500 CEOs. The finding shows that younger and female CEOs, who derive narcissism supply and lead media companies, are more inclined to take risks on stock returns. This result suggests re-evaluating stock market efficiency to include CEO demographics and personality, which extends beyond traditional CAPM models. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics. / Discipline: Departmental Honors.

Diese Dissertation besteht aus drei Essays, welche empirisch den Einfluss von Manager-Optimismus auf verschiedene unternehmenspolitische Entscheidungen untersuchen. Der Ausdruck Manager-Optimismus wird hierbei verwendet um Agenten (Manager) zu beschreiben, die im Interesse der Prinzipale (Aktionäre) zu handeln glauben, aber tatsächlich ins Positive verzerrte Vorstellungen über ihre eigenen Fähigkeiten und somit über die zukünftige Performance ihrer Firmen haben. Das erste Papier untersucht den Einfluss von Manager-Optimismus auf Ausstattungsmerkmale von Fremdkapitalverträgen. Konsistent mit nach oben verzerrten Erwartungen über die zukünftigen Cash Flows ihrer Firmen zeigt sich, dass Firmen mit übermäßig optimistischen Managern häufiger Performance abhängige Verträge nutzen und zugleich eine schlechtere Performance nach Aufnahme des Fremdkapitals aufweisen als solche mit rationalen Managern. Der zweite Artikel untersucht unternehmerisches Risikomanagement. Es stellt sich heraus, dass Firmen mit optimistischen Managern signifikant weniger wahrscheinlich Finanzderivate zur Absicherung ihrer Fremdwährungsrisiken nutzen als solche mit rationalen Managern. Dieses Verhalten ist mit einer Unterschätzung von Insolvenzkosten bzw. Kosten einer finanziellen Notlage konsistent. Der dritte Teil der Arbeit untersucht empirisch das Verhältnis zwischen Manager-Optimismus und der Nutzung von großen Abschreibungen im Rahmen von CEO-Wechseln. Nach dem Abgang von CEOs kann man häufig beobachten, dass deren Nachfolger ein so genanntes big bath accounting durchführen. Hierbei werden durch Abschreibungen Verluste dem Vorgänger zugeschrieben und Verdienste für zukünftige Performanceverbesserungen für sich beansprucht. In Übereinstimmung mit den verzerrten Erwartungen über zukünftige Cash Flows ihrer Firmen zeigt sich, dass Unternehmen, welche einen optimistischen Manager einstellen, weniger wahrscheinlich ein solches earnings bath durchführen, als Firmen, die rationale Manager einstellen. / This thesis consists of three essays that empirically investigate to what extent managerial optimism affects corporate financial policy decisions. The term managerial optimism is used to describe agents (managers), who believe to act in the principals’ (shareholders’) best interest but in fact have upwardly biased views about their own abilities and consequently about the performance of their firms. The first paper investigates the impact of managerial optimism on debt contract design. Consistent with their upwardly biased view on their firm’s future cash flow, we find that firms with overly optimistic managers are more likely to choose performance sensitive debt (PSD) contracts and show worse post issue performance than firms with rational managers. The second paper analyzes corporate risk management. We find that firms with overly optimistic managers are significantly less likely to use financial derivatives to hedge their currency exposures than those with rational managers. This behavior is consistent with an underestimation of bankruptcy or financial distress costs by overly optimistic managers. The third paper empirically tests the relationship between managerial optimism and the use of large write-offs following CEO turnover. Subsequent to CEO turnover, it is often observed that incoming CEOs engage in this so called big bath accounting. Losses incurred during the big bath are attributed to the predecessors and the incoming CEOs take credit for future performance improvements. Consistent with their upwardly biased expectations concerning future firm cash flow, we find that firms hiring optimistic managers are less likely to experience an earnings bath in the year of the turnover than those hiring their rational counterparts.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T16:44:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alessandra Orchis Machado.pdf: 1676745 bytes, checksum: fda25269467d033aa40b44f2831d2a4d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-27 / Most companies have to manage their foreign exchange risk, and the appropriate use of financial derivatives would consist among most efficient strategies to minimize this risk. Through the theory of modern finance, the combination of rationality and technique would be sufficient to ensure the success of protection policies, generating low volatility of results and value to businesses. However, behavioral finance theory has identified that agents psycological and social factors interfere in decision process, and may cause unexpected results to individuals and companies. Thus, this study expects to answer why not always use currency derivatives for hedging purposes adds value to the firms, despite its benefits seem obvious. For it, it was analyzed secondary data from Brazil, emerging country with currency volatility and growing derivatives market, suitable for behavioral studies. Among many behavioral aspects presented in financial theory, this research delimited its analysis in anchoring, availability, herd behavior and aversion to certain loss. Anchoring and availability heuristics, would be expressed by managers decisions based on market forecasts was analyzed by correlation between observed and projected foreign exchange rates. The herd effect was studied by the time series evolution of the exchange rate and outstanding of OTC derivatives. The aversion to certain loss, was studied by the correlation between the hedging premium, differential between spot and futures exchange, and the evolution derivatives outstanding. By these data it was possible to identify moderately the heuristics and herd behavior. The aversion to certain loss was not evidenced by the data studied. Anyway, this research contributes to academic foundations, companies and regulators, and provides fertile field for further studies / Boa parte das empresas são desafiadas a gerir seu risco cambial, sendo que a utilização adequada de derivativos financeiros constaria entre as estratégias mais eficientes para minimização deste risco. Pela teoria de finanças moderna, a combinação entre racionalidade e técnica seriam suficientes e garantiriam o sucesso de políticas de proteção, gerando baixa volatilidade de resultados e valor às empresas. Contudo, a teoria de finanças comportamentais identificou que fatores psicossociais dos agentes interferem no processo decisório, podendo gerar resultados inesperados a indivíduos e empresas. Assim, com este estudo espera-se responder por que nem sempre o uso de derivativos cambiais com finalidade de hedge adiciona valor às empresas, apesar de seus benefícios parecerem óbvios. Para tanto, foram utilizados dados secundários do Brasil, país emergente com alta volatilidade cambial e mercado de derivativos crescente, propício para estudos comportamentais. Entre os diversos aspectos comportamentais apresentados na teoria financeira, esta pesquisa delimitou sua análise na ancoragem, disponibilidade, efeito manada e aversão à perda certa. A ancoragem e a disponibilidade, as heurísticas, manifestadas por gestores que tomariam decisões de hedge baseadas em projeções de câmbio do mercado, foram analisadas pela correlação entre câmbio projetado e observado. Para o efeito manada buscou-se identificar relações entre as séries temporais, evolução da taxa de câmbio e estoque de derivativos de balcão. A aversão à perda certa, por sua vez, foi estudada por meio do cálculo de correlação entre prêmio pelo hedge, diferencial de pontos entre câmbios à vista e futuro, e evolução do estoque de derivativos. As amostras estudadas permitiram a identificação, ainda que moderada, de potenciais deficiências das heurísticas e efeito manada. Já a aversão à perda certa não foi evidenciada na base de dados estudada. De qualquer forma, esta pesquisa contribui para as bases acadêmicas, empresas e órgãos reguladores, e apresenta terreno fértil para novos estudos

Dans les trois chapitres de cette thèse nous explorons le lien entre les performances des entreprises et les caractéristiques psychologiques des dirigeants. Dans un premier chapitre conceptuel, nous étudions les fondements théoriques des travaux en finance comportementale d'entreprise en analysant l'hubris et les concepts qui lui sont apparentés. Nous suggérons des pistes de recherche futures qui, pour certaines, sont mises en oeuvre dans les deux autres chapitres de ce travail. Dans le second chapitre, nous étudions l'impact du narcissisme des dirigeants acquéreurs et cibles sur les aspects privés d'un échantillon de fusions-acquisitions américaines. Nos résultats indiquent que desniveaux de narcissisme plus élevés chez les dirigeants acquéreurs sont associés à une plus forte probabilité que l'acquéreur initie l'opération et à une période plus courte entre l'initiation de l'opération et son annonce publique. Nos résultats suggèrent également que des niveaux de narcissisme plus élevés chez les dirigeants cibles sont positivement associés à la prime offerte et négativement associés aux rendements anormaux cumulés de l'acquéreur. Dans le troisième chapitre, nous analysons l'effet du leadership authentique du dirigeant sur les performances boursières etd'exploitation d'un échantillon d'entreprises du SBF 250. Nous collectons des données sur le leadership authentique par le biais de questionnaires. Nous analysons la différence entre les performances des entreprises en les affectant à trois portefeuilles selon le niveau de leadership authentique en utilisant l'analyse en trois facteurs de Fama et French. Nous ne trouvons aucun lien significatif entre le niveau de leadership authentique du dirigeant et la performance boursière. Dansles analyses des performances d'exploitation, nous trouvons un lien positif et significatif entre le niveau de leadership authentique et la rentabilité économique (ROA). / We study the effect of CEO psychological characteristics on firm performance in three papers. We first consider the theoretical background to work in behavioral corporate finance in a conceptual paper analyzing hubris and related psychological concepts. In this paper we put forward ideas for future research, some of which we implement subsequent papers. In paper 2, we study the effect of acquirer and target CEO narcissism on the private aspects of the takeover process in a sample of US M&A deals. We find that higher levels of acquirer CEO narcissism are associated with a higher probability of deal initiation by the acquirer and with a shorter length of time between deal initiation and announcement. Concerning value effects, our results suggest that higher levels of target CEO narcissism are positively related to bid premium and negatively related to acquirer cumulative abnormal returns. In addition, the difference between acquirer and target CEO narcissism is a significant factor in explaining the different aspects of the takeover process. In the third paper, we analyze the effect of CEO authentic leadership on the market and operating performance of a sample of listed French firms. We collect data on CEO authentic leadership using questionnaires. We analyze the difference in performance of firms sorted into three portfolios according to the level of CEO authentic leadership using a Fama French three factor analysis. We fail to find a significant relationship between CEO authentic leadership and market performance. In the operating performance analyses, we find a positive association between CEO authentic leadership and ROA.