Managers' Political Orientation

Overview: This file provides political orientation scores for executives on the Execucomp database. 

Data setup: The file is setup at the executive level. The executive identifier is "EXECID" from Execucomp. The variable "Politics" captures the executive's political orientation based on personal political contributions recorded by the Federal Election Commission. The score ranges from -1 (i.e., Democrat-leaning) to +1 (Republican-leaning). If a score is missing, it's because no political contributions were identified for the executive. The filename notes the years of political contributions that were used to generate political orientation scores. 

Methodology: Political orientation scores are generated following the methodology in Christensen, Dhaliwal, Boivie, and Graffin (2015 SMJ). See the paper for details. 

Disclaimer: This data was gathered for my use as an academic researcher. Despite my best efforts, the data likely contains some errors. I update this dataset from time to time to correct errors I become aware of. 

Terms of Use: This data is the most recent version of the one I have used in several research projects. If you use this data, please cite the following papers: 

Graffin, S., T. Hubbard, D.M. Christensen, and E. Lee. 2020. The Influence of CEO Risk Tolerance on Initial Pay Packages. Strategic Management Journal 41(4): 788–811. 

Christensen, D.M., D. Dhaliwal, S. Boivie, and S. Graffin. 2015. Top Management Conservatism and Corporate Risk Strategies: Evidence from Managers’ Personal Political Orientation and Corporate Tax Avoidance. Strategic Management Journal 36(12): 1918–1938. 

Time period covered: 1991-2022

Last Updated: 03/07/2024