Publications
Publications
- 2025
- HBS Working Paper Series
The Political Polarization of Corporate America
By: Vyacheslav Fos, Elisabeth Kempf and Margarita Tsoutsoura
Abstract
U.S. executives are increasingly segregating by political party. We establish this new fact using
political affiliations from voter registration records for top executives of S&P 1500 firms between
2008 and 2022. We identify key drivers of this trend, including growing segregation among executives
within geographies and industries. Executives whose political views differ from the majority
of their team are more likely to depart, contributing to the increasing polarization. Furthermore,
an analysis of insider trading behavior suggests that intensifying partisan disagreement among
executives may further fuel this segregation. Across all of these findings, we observe a significant
shift in the dynamics around the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which marks an inflection point
in the political polarization of corporate leadership.
Keywords
Political Polarization; Partisanship; Executives; Government and Politics; Business and Shareholder Relations; United States
Citation
Fos, Vyacheslav, Elisabeth Kempf, and Margarita Tsoutsoura. "The Political Polarization of Corporate America." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 23-003, July 2022. (Revised March 2025.)