We demonstrate that firm leaders’ personal traits formed from their early life experiences affect employees’ behavior and performance at work. In the context of securities companies in China, we show that chairpersons’ adolescent experience as “sent-down youths”(SDYs) during the...

"We document the market response to an unexpected announcement of proposed sales of government-owned shares in China. In contrast to the "privatization premium" found in earlier work, we find a negative effect of government ownership on returns at the announcement date and a symmetric positive...