CEO Characteristics and Behavioral Biases as Determinants of Firm Performance

Abstract

This research aims to determine how CEO characteristics and behavioral biases affect firm performance among publicly listed companies in Kazakhstan. A panel dataset of firm-year observations from 2006 to 2024 was used to evaluate the effects of CEO age, education level, education origin, overconfidence, and loss aversion on three performance measures: return on assets, return on equity, and scale efficiency. The findings show that CEOs with postgraduate and foreign education consistently improve performance of the firm, whereas more mature CEO contribute to a slight decline in efficiency. While CEO overconfidence has no effects on firm outcomes, loss aversion is strongly associated with lower profitability. This thesis contributes to the limited literature on managerial traits and financial outcomes in Kazakhstan and shows that concerning CEO characteristics and behavioral biases matter for corporate governance, investor evaluations, and policy decisions.