We compare CEO turnover in public and large private firms. Public firms have higher turnover rates and exhibit greater turnover-performance sensitivities than private firms. Controlling for preturnover performance, performance improvements are greater for private firms than for public firms. We investigate whether these differences are due to differences in quality of accounting information, the CEO candidate pool, CEO power, board structure, ownership structure, investor horizon, or some unobservable differences between public and private firms. One factor contributing to public firms’ higher turnover rates and greater turnover-performance sensitivities appears to be investor myopia.
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