Desperately Seeking Small Worlds in Corporate Boards:International Evidence from Listed Firms

Malika Hamadi (), Andréas Heinen, Nicolas Jonard () and Alfonso Valdesogo Robles
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Malika Hamadi: CRENoS, University of Sassari
Nicolas Jonard: CREA, Université de Luxembourg

DEM Discussion Paper Series from Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg

Abstract: This paper analyzes the structure of national corporate board networks of listed firms in a large cross-section of countries. We introduce an explicitly bivariate nonparametric hypothesis test for small worlds, based on the comparison of observed distance and clustering with simulated measures obtained from a number of increasingly stringent bipartite counterfactuals. Using our test, we find little support for the small world hypothesis regardless of the counterfactual. Moreover, we show that results are sensitive to the choice of counterfactual. We further identify the role played by bicliques, small densely connected subsets of the network, in the rejection of the small world hypothesis.

Keywords: Boards of directors; small worlds; bipartite graphs; testing; bicliques (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C63 D85 G34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-net
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:luc:wpaper:15-19

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