Managers' cultural origin and corporate response to an economic shock

Mascia Bedendo, Emilia Garcia-Appendini and Linus Siming

Journal of Corporate Finance, 2023, vol. 80, issue C

Abstract: We exploit the exogenous Covid-19 shock in a bicultural area of Italy to identify cultural differences in the way companies respond to economic shocks. Firms with managers of diverse cultural backgrounds resort to different forms of government aid, diverge in their investment decisions, and have different growth rates. These findings are consistent with cultural differences in time preferences and debt aversion. Specifically, we find that the response of managers belonging to a more long-term oriented culture is characterized by a lower recourse to debt, more investments and higher growth rates. Overall, our results show that the cultural origin of managers significantly affects firms' reaction to economic shocks and real economic outcomes.

Keywords: Corporate financing; Corporate investment; Culture; Covid-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G32 G33 G40 M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:corfin:v:80:y:2023:i:c:s0929119923000615

DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2023.102412

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