Executive teams are becoming increasingly partisan, partly because of increased sorting by partisan executives into firms with like-minded individuals; executives of minority political views have a higher probability of leaving

The Political Polarization of United States Firms. Vyacheslav Fos, Elisabeth Kempf, Margarita Tsoutsoura. American Economic Ass'n Conference 'CEOs and Politics,' Jan 7 2022. https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2022/preliminary/2052

Abstract: Executive teams in U.S. firms are becoming increasingly partisan, leading to a political polarization of corporate America. We establish this new fact using political affiliations from voter registration records for top executives of S&P 1500 firms between 2008 and 2018. The rise in partisanship is explained by both an increasing share of Republican executives and increased sorting by partisan executives into firms with like-minded individuals. Further, we find that within a given firm-year, executives whose political views do not match those of the team's majority have a higher probability of leaving the firm. The increase in partisanship is taking place despite executive teams becoming more diverse in terms of gender and race.