Abstract: Based on the Upper Echelons Theory, this paper selects Chinese A-share listed companies as the sample to empirically explore whether CEOs can effectively reduce the litigation risks faced by listed companies. We find that the litigation risks for listed companies in which CEOs have experienced difficult periods in infancy-childhood and childhood-adolescence are significantly reduced, and the impact is more pronounced for CEOs who experienced difficult periods in childhood-adolescence. The causal relationship remains robust after employing the difference-in-difference model and advancing the explanatory variables by one stage to eliminate the endogeneity issue. Further research shows that CEOs who have experienced difficult periods have reduced the level of risk in business operations because they have higher levels of risk aversion, and have not changed the internal control level of enterprises.

Key words: Upper Echelons Theory, CEO, early experience, litigation risk

摘要： 本文基于高层梯队理论,选取中国A股上市公司作为样本,以实证分析的方式探究了CEO个人能否有效降低上市公司面临的诉讼风险。我们发现,婴儿-幼儿期、童年-青少年期经历过困难时期的CEO所在的上市公司的诉讼风险水平更低,且童年-青少年期经历困难时期的影响更为明显。利用CEO在不同省份经历困难时期的严重程度差异构造双重差分模型、将被解释变量前置一期控制潜在的内生性之后,因果关系仍保持稳健。进一步研究表明,经历过困难时期的CEO因为具有更高的风险厌恶程度而降低了企业运营中整体的风险水平,没有改变企业的内部控制水平。

关键词: 高层梯队理论, CEO, 早年经历, 诉讼风险