Do MBAs Pick Winning Stocks When Choosing Their First Job?

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IZA Seminar

Place: Schaumburg-Lippe-Str. 9, 53113 Bonn

Date: 30.09.2014, 12:15 - 13:30

   

Presentation by 

Paul Oyer (Stanford University)
   

Abstract:

Every Summer and Fall, freshly minted MBAs take new positions at companies. We analyze whether their choices have any predictive power for the success of those companies and what drives the choices made by the MBAs. We show that, not surprisingly, MBAs tend to join companies that have been successful in the time leading up to the beginning of employment. The companies' stock, on average, continue to substantially outperform the broader market in the year after new MBAs join. Most, if not all, of this outperformance after hiring can be explained by the fact that the employers tend to be high beta firms. Adjusting returns for a factor model, we find that adjusted returns are roughly zero. We go on to examine similarities and differences between firms that hire MBAs and those that hire other workers.

   
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