Andrew Urquhart
Henley Business, University of Reading

Abstract:

This paper investigates the relationship between the education of a CEO and firm performance.  Our analysis is based on the constituent firms of the UK FTSE 350 index from 1999 to 2017 and provides robust evidence that firms led by CEOs with PhDs outperform their peers, while other education degrees offer little explanatory power. Specifically, we find that CEOs with PhDs increase firm performance by 3.2% while CEOs with a PhD from a highly ranked university increase firm performance by 5%. Our results are robust to the endogenous CEO selection using propensity score matching methods, as well as other modelling approaches. We also show that the increase in firm performance is due to a tighter control of costs, rather than increasing revenues from assets, higher risks or increased spending on R&D. Therefore our evidence highlights the importance of CEO education on firm performance.

Dr Andrew Urquhart is Associate Professor at the ICMA Centre, Henley Business, University of Reading. Previously, he was Lecturer and then Associate Professor at Southampton Business School, University of Southampton. Andrew’s main research interests are financial markets, investor behaviour, high-frequency trading, cryptocurrencies and investor sentiment.  Andrew has published over 30 papers in a range of leading international journals and is currently Associate Editor at the International Review of Financial Analysis, the European Journal of Finance and Research in International Business and Finance. He has recently edited a special issue of Research in International Business and Finance on cryptocurrencies and is editing a special issue on cryptocurrencies at Economics Letters. Recently, Andrew received the best paper award at the 2018 Cryptocurrency Research Conference, Cambridge, UK. In 2017, Andrew was awarded the Deans award for leadership in research and he was also awarded the Tom Fetherston award for the best paper in International Review of Financial Analysis in 2013.

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Venue
Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering
Building B26/B – Room 3.23 – third floor
Via Lambruschini 4/B, Milano