Abstract: In this study, we investigate whether the association between shared leadership and risk-taking by focusing on leverage. We use company filings to the SEC to identify companies that are led by co-CEOs during the time period 2001-2019. Our main result shows that companies led by co-CEOs are associated with lower leverage. Furthermore, we find that these results are reversed within a co-CEO sample when there is a greater power dispersion between the co-CEOs. Additional analyses reveal that companies with dual CEOs carry more excess cash and that shared leadership is associated with higher agency costs.
