Gender diversity in corporate boards: Evidence from quota-implied discontinuities


Kuzmina, Olga ; Melentyeva, Valentina


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URL: https://madoc.bib.uni-mannheim.de/59153
URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:180-madoc-591538
Document Type: Working paper
Year of publication: 2021
Volume: 21-023
Place of publication: Mannheim
Publication language: English
Institution: Sonstige Einrichtungen > ZEW - Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung
Außerfakultäre Einrichtungen > Graduate School of Economic and Social Sciences - CDSE (Economics)
MADOC publication series: Veröffentlichungen des ZEW (Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung) > ZEW Discussion Papers
Subject: 330 Economics
Classification: JEL: J16 , G34 , G38 , D22,
Keywords (English): Gender diversity , women on boards , gender quota , performance
Abstract: Using data across European corporate boards, we investigate the effects of quota-induced female representation on firm value and operations, under minimal identification assumptions. We consider sharp increases in the share of women on boards that arise due to rounding whenever percentage-based regulation applies to a small group of people. We find that having more women on corporate boards has large positive effects on Tobin´s Q and buy-and-hold returns. This result is in stark contrast with previous empirical work that finds large negative effects. The reason for this discrepancy is that these papers considered firms with different pre-quota shares of women to be good counterfactuals to each other. In our data, we see that such firms had grown differently already before the regulation. Thus, assuming they are good comparables would result in a negatively biased estimate of the effect. Instead, we use quasi-random assignment induced by rounding and find that promoting gender equality is aligned with shareholder interests. This positive effect is not explained by increased risk-taking or changes in board composition, but rather by scaling down inefficient operations and empire-“demolishing“.




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