ESRI Discussion Paper Series No.391 Golfing CEOs

Yutaro Izumi

National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS)

Hitoshi Shigeoka

The University of Tokyo

Simon Fraser University

Masayuki Yagasaki

Economic and Social Research Institute, Cabinet Office

Tohoku University

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Abstract

 Izumi, Shigeoka, and Yagasaki (2023) document the existence of CEO gender homophily in firm-to-firm transactions, where CEOs of the same gender are more likely to trade more than those of the opposite gender, disadvantaging female CEOs in a male-dominated business landscape. In this paper, we investigate the underlying mechanism, focusing on the role of networking tools, in particular, whether CEOs play golf as a hobby. Using a unique dataset that includes both CEO hobbies and detailed inter-firm networks, we show that playing golf does not benefit female CEOs in finding male business partners, while for male CEOs playing golf is associated with a higher share of trading with male CEOs. These findings suggest the existence of informal channels (or “old boys’ clubs”) in firm- to-firm transactions that prevent female CEOs from penetrating male-dominated CEO networks.

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