Back to Management blogThe Harvard Law School Corporate Governance Blog is showcasing an academic paper that explores how politically connected companies in the US fared in the days after the 2000 presidential election.
The researchers found that the result boosted shares in S&P 500 businesses whose board had a ”pure” connection to the victorious Republicans (that, for example, contained one or more former Republican members of Congress, and no such Democrats). Shares in large companies whose boards leaned to the losing Democrats suffered.
Of course, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the opposite will be true when US markets open today. But investors might find it useful to look up a few director biographies all the same.
Ravi Mattu is the editor of 
Stefan Stern writes a weekly column on 
Lucy Kellaway writes a weekly column on 
Luke Johnson writes an FT column on 
