We introduce a novel measure of corporate hierarchies for over 3,100 U.S. public firms. This measure is obtained from online resumes of 7 million employees and a network estimation technique that allows us to identify hierarchical layers. Equipped with this measure, we document several facts about corporate hierarchies. Firms have on average ten hierarchical layers and a pyramidal organizational structure. More hierarchical firms have a more educated workforce, higher internal promotion rates, and longer employee tenure. Their operating performance is higher, but they face higher administrative costs. They are more active acquirers and produce more patents, but not higher-quality patents. They exhibit lower stock return volatility and operating asset volatility. We also examine how companies adjust their hierarchies in response to demand and knowledge shocks. We find that pharmaceutical companies increased their number of layers following the Covid-19 pandemic, while companies flattened their hierarchies following the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. These findings are consistent with the theoretical

predictions of existing models of corporate hierarchies.

This paper examines technology adoption and individual career progressions of technically-skilled employees in the banking sector. We leverage detailed employer-employee matched data to capture (i) the technical skills of each employee, (ii) firm-level technical capital, and (iii) a novel methodology to systematically measure vintages of technical skills, differentiating older technical skills (e.g., Fortran) from newer technical skills (e.g., Python). Banks dramatically increased their technical hiring during the 2010s, with an average bank's technical capital growing by 84%. This increase is ubiquitous across bank size, deposits, and loan portfolio composition. At the individual employee level, we document the importance of modern technical skills. We leverage a unique combination of the same workers' resumes captured in 2015 and 2020 and find that having modern technical skills in 2015 reduces the likelihood of demotions by 2020 by 2.7%. These effects are especially pronounced for older workers. For employees over 40, having modern technical skills reduces demotions by 3.9%. These results highlight the interaction between employee age and skill vintage, with important policy implications for workforce reskilling in the face of advancing new technologies.

We penetrate the black box of post-acquisition integration process by examining whether business unit leaders (BULs) —executives responsible for integrating and operating acquired targets— shape integration outcomes. Using text-based and financial measures, we find that BUL target industry experience increases (decreases) integration success (failures) through superior realization of revenue and cost synergies. Other BUL attributes are unrelated to integration outcomes. Consistent with the importance of integration for acquisition success, BUL target industry experience enhances acquisition performance, with effects most pronounced when integration challenges are greatest. BULs add no value at earlier transaction stages, except through integration planning and more extensive due diligence.