Despite a more authoritarian personality, Republican CEOs, known to favor the avoidance of threats and ambiguity, tend to prefer a less asymmetric information environment; hence they make more frequent, timelier, and more accurate disclosures

CEO Political Ideology and Voluntary Forward-Looking Disclosure. Md Noman Hossain et al. American Economic Ass'n Conference 'CEOs and Politics,' Jan 7 2022. https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2022/preliminary/2052

Abstract: This study investigates the information disclosure preferences of Republican versus Democrat CEOs using management earnings forecasts. Republican CEOs are known to favor the avoidance of threats and ambiguity, and this seems to outweigh the tendency to seize on information, associated with their authoritarian personalities. We find that Republican CEOs tend to prefer a less asymmetric information environment; hence they make more frequent, timelier, and more accurate disclosures than Democrat CEOs. We address endogeneity concerns using propensity score matching and difference-in-differences estimation and show that our results are unlikely to be driven by potential endogeneity. Our results are robust to controlling for CEO characteristics, incentives, overconfidence, and managerial ability, and are stronger for firms with higher levels of institutional ownership and litigation risk.