The Political Polarization of Corporate America

An earlier version of this paper circulated under the title “The Political Polarization of U.S. Firms.” We have benefited from comments by Pat Akey (discussant), Marianne Bertrand, Matt Gentzkow (dis- cussant), Emir Kamenica, Anil Kashyap, Neil Malhotra (discussant), John Matsusaka (discussant), Elena Pikulina (discussant), Vincent Pons, Orkun Saka (discussant), Antoinette Schoar, Andrei Shleifer, Amir Sufi, Luigi Zin- gales, and participants at AFA, Boston College, Central European University, Challenges in American Institutions Conference (Hoover), Columbia University, Deakin University, Harvard Business School, Harvard Law, Indiana University, London Political Finance Workshop, Miami Behavioral Finance Conference, NYU Law, Penn State, Princeton University, Stanford GSB, University of Chicago (Booth and Harris), University of Arizona, University of Geneva, University of Michigan, University of Nebraska, University of Oregon, University of Sussex, University of Zurich, USC Social and Behavioral Finance Conference, UT Austin, Washington University in St. Louis, and the Women in Law and Finance Workshop. We also thank Pietro Bini, Xinyu Cao, Yifang Hong, Daniel Huang, Qiaoqiao Xiang, and Zichen Zhao for excellent research assistance. Kempf gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Initiative on Global Markets, the Fama-Miller Center for Research in Finance, and the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago. The authors do not have any conflicts of interest to disclose. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

• June 30, 2022
• May 25, 2023