From Rivals to Allies? CEO Connections in an Era of Common Ownership
Dennis Hutschenreiter, Qianshuo Liu
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 7,
2025
Abstract
Institutional common ownership of firm pairs in the same industry increases the likelihood of a preexisting social connection among their CEOs. We establish this relationship using a quasi-natural experiment that exploits institutional mergers combined with firms’ hiring events and detailed information on CEO biographies. In addition, for peer firms, gaining a CEO connection from a hiring firm’s CEO appointment correlates with higher returns on assets, stock market returns, and decreasing product similarity between companies. We find evidence consistent with common owners allocating CEO connections to shape managerial decisionmaking and increase portfolio firms’ performance.
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IWH Flash Indicator
IWH Flash Indicator The IWH Flash Indicator is a forecasting tool which provides early information on economic development. While the German Federal Statistical Office publishes…
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Monitoring of Business Cycles for the Land Saxony-Anhalt
Monitoring of Economic Developments in Saxony-Anhalt This data was generated by IWH on behalf of the Ministry of Economy, Science and Digitalisation of Saxony-Anhalt from 2007 to…
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Alumni
IWH Alumni The IWH maintains contact with its former employees worldwide. We involve our alumni in our work and keep them informed, for example, with a newsletter. We also plan…
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Robot Hubs and the Use of Robotics in US Manufacturing Establishments
Erik Brynjolfsson, Catherine Buffington, Nathan Goldschlag, J. Frank Li, Javier Miranda, Robert Seamans
American Economic Association Papers and Proceedings,
Vol. 115 (May),
2025
Abstract
We use data from the Annual Survey of Manufactures to study the characteristics and geographic distribution of investments in robots across US manufacturing establishments. Robotics adoption and robot intensity (the number of robots per employee) cluster in "robot hubs." Establishments that report having robotics are larger and have a larger production worker share, lower pay per worker, lower labor share, and higher capital expenditures, including higher IT capital expenditures. Notably, establishments are more likely to have robots if other establishments in the same core-based statistical area and industry also report having robotics, suggestive of agglomeration and peer effects.
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IWH-CompNet 5th FINPRO
IWH-CompNet 5th Finance and Productivity Conference 24-25 April, 2026 - Tokyo, Japan The IWH-CompNet 5th Finance and Productivity Conference (FINPRO5), held on 24–25 April 2026 at…
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10th Vintage
The CompNet 10th Vintage Dataset 10th Vintage dataset is now available! The CompNet dataset provides a comprehensive set of micro-aggregated indicators, specifically designed to…
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Alumni
Alumni IWH provides guidance and support in job placement after graduation, including letters of recommendation and career advice. Graduates have found placements in academia…
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Research Clusters
Three Research Clusters Each IWH research group is assigned to a topic-oriented research cluster. The clusters are not separate organisational units, but rather bundle the…
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Governance & Structure
Governance & Structure The IWH Center for Business and Productivity Dynamism (IWH-CBPD), led by Center Chief Javier Miranda , hosts the CompNet Network and its related activities.…
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