Climate (in)action? The relationship between CEO early-life experiences and corporate climate policies

Wiebke Szymczak, Simone A. Wagner and Timo Busch

Ecological Economics, 2025, vol. 237, issue C

Abstract: While the drastic physical impacts of climate change and related natural hazards are increasingly apparent, little is known about the long-term behavioral consequences of climate change-related experiences. Psychological evidence suggests that climate change (CC)-related experiences induce people to make more climate-friendly choices. Building on Upper Echelons Theory and relevant psychological literature, we investigate whether early-life natural hazard experiences of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are associated with more climate-friendly policies during their tenure. Our sample covers decisions taken between 1991 and 2018 by 447 US-born CEOs. While we observe an effect of hazard experiences on climate policies, we do not observe the same effect when focusing only on CC-related experiences. This result is robust across different measures of corporate climate performance.

Keywords: Climate change; Early-life hazard experiences; Chief executive officers; Upper echelons; Psychological distance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:237:y:2025:i:c:s0921800925001181

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2025.108635

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