No 47 In My List of Reasons Why Productivity Gains are so Difficult

From a batch of NBER working papers a few weeks ago (abstract; emphasis added):

CEO Behavior and Firm Performance
Oriana Bandiera, Stephen Hansen, Andrea Prat, Raffaella Sadun

We measure the behavior of 1,114 CEOs in Brazil, France, Germany, India, UK and US using a new methodology that combines (i) data on every activity the CEOs undertake during one workweek and (ii) a machine learning algorithm that projects these data onto scalar CEO behavior indices. Low values of the index are associated with plant visits, and one-on-one meetings with production or suppliers, while high values correlate with meetings with high-level C-suite executives, and several functions together, both from inside and outside the firm. We use these data to study the correlation between CEO behavior and firm performance within the framework of a firm-CEO assignment model. We show results consistent with significant firm-CEO assignment frictions, which appear to be more severe in lower-income regions. The productivity loss generated by inefficient assignment is equal to 13% of the productivity gap between high- and low-income countries in our sample.

In short, 13% of the productivity difference between rich and poor countries is due to having roughly 17% of CEOs in poorer countries not spending their time properly (relative to their industry).

And people think it’s about robots.

Technical Notes

Bandiera, Oriana & Stephen Hansen, Andrea Prat, Raffaella Sadun, "CEO Behavior and Firm Performance", NBER Working Paper No. 23248, March 2017