A study conducted by Adam Yore, an assistant professor of finance at the Trulaske College of Business, found that a CEO’s job experience can offset the negative effects that accompany the individual’s increases in age, according to an MU News Bureau [release](http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2016/0120-zuckerberg-or-buffett-is-youth-or-experience-more-valuable-in-the-boardroom/).

The study, co-authored by Brandon Cline of Mississippi State, is titled “Silverback CEOs: Age, Experience and Firm Value,” and will be published in a future edition of the Journal of Empirical Finance.

Forty-nine percent of Standard & Poor’s corporate firms have policies that determine retirement based on age. According to the release, the policies allow the corporations to force employees over the age of 65 into retirement.

After analyzing data from 2,143 firms, Yore came to three conclusions: CEO age negatively impacts firm value and operating performance, while CEO experience positively impacts firm value and operating performance. Based on his findings, Yore concluded that the benefits of CEO experience outweigh the negative effects of increasing CEO age.

“This is not a black and white issue,” Yore said in a news release. “What we do know is that any ‘one-size-fits-all’ model of governance will create more problems than solutions. Although we found that mandatory retirement policies can represent an effective form of corporate governance, in order to mitigate issues regarding the underperformance of older CEOs, a clear need also exists to account for all personal characteristics of executives, especially experience.”

**Edited by Hailey Stolze | hstolze@themaneater.com**