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Sarang, Aitzaz Ahsan Alias, Nicolas Aubert & Xavier Hollandts (2024): Board gender diversity and the cost of equity: What difference does gender quota legislation make? In: International Journal of Finance and Economics, Jg. 29, H. 2, S. 2193-2213. DOI:10.1002/ijfe.2774

Abstract

"This study examines the relationship between women directors and the cost of equity (COE). Investigating the French firm's sample, we find a significant negative effect of women directors on the COE. Our results also document that the effect of women directors on reducing the COE is significant for firms that have a critical mass of at least four women directors. Using the difference-in-difference (DID) and propensity score matching (PSM) approach, we find that the relationship between female directors and lower equity costs is significant for the period following the Copé–Zimmermann gender quota law. The results show that women directors' presence on corporate boards is also supported by economic reasons. The study provides implications in relation to the Copé–Zimmermann law in France." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Sondergeld, Virginia & Katharina Wrohlich (2024): Gender Pay Gap in einem Betrieb sinkt mit mehr Frauen in Führungspositionen. In: DIW-Wochenbericht, Jg. 91, H. 3, S. 38-43. DOI:10.18723/diw_wb:2024-3-3

Abstract

"Frauen sind in hohen Führungspositionen privatwirtschaftlicher Unternehmen in Deutschland nach wie vor unterrepräsentiert. In den vergangenen Jahren hat die Politik mehrfach Maßnahmen ergriffen, um den Frauenanteil in Führungspositionen zu erhöhen. Hat ein Betrieb mehr Frauen im Management, kann das positive Wirkungen auf alle Frauen in diesem Betrieb entfalten. Wie die empirischen Analysen in diesem Bericht auf Basis von Linked-Employer-Employee-Daten des Instituts für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB) zeigen, senkt ein höherer Frauenanteil auf der ersten und zweiten Führungsebene den betriebsspezifischen Gender Pay Gap. Statistisch signifikante Effekte durch den Frauenanteil auf der obersten Führungsebene sind allerdings erst ab einem Drittel zu beobachten – derzeit liegt der Frauenanteil dort im Durchschnitt noch deutlich niedriger. Die Unternehmen sollten also ihre Bemühungen, mehr Frauen in hohe Führungspositionen zu befördern, fortsetzen. Dies könnte die ökonomische Ungleichheit zwischen Frauen und Männern auf allen Hierarchieebenen eines Betriebs vermindern." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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(2023): Gender diversity in senior management and firm productivity: Evidence from nine OECD countries. (OECD productivity working papers 34), Paris, 29 S. DOI:10.1787/58ad664a-en

Abstract

"This paper investigates the link between gender diversity in senior management and firm-level productivity. For this purpose, it constructs a novel cross-country dataset with information on firms' senior management group and other firm characteristics, covering both publicly listed and unlisted firms in manufacturing and non-financial market services across nine OECD countries. The main result from the analysis is that productivity gains from increasing gender diversity in senior management are highest among firms with low initial diversity. Increasing the female share to the sample average of 20% in firms with initially lower shares would increase aggregate productivity by around 0.6%. This suggests that improving women's access to senior management positions matters not only for equity but could yield significant productivity gains." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gong, Yundan & Sourafel Girma (2021): Top management gender diversity and performance: in search of threshold effects. In: Cambridge Journal of Economics, Jg. 45, H. 1, S. 109-127. DOI:10.1093/cje/beaa045

Abstract

"The impact of gender diversity on business performance has been featured prominently on the agenda of many politicians and business leaders in recent years. However, empirical results of the impact of gender diversity on firm performance have been ambiguous. This paper contributes to the literature by using propensity score-based estimation techniques on a large sample of UK firms to analyse the performance effect of appointing a first female board director. We look at financial and non-financial performance indicators and document significant effects on firm growth and labour cost efficiency, but rather fragile ones on accounting returns, such as profitability. We also document evidence of another threshold effect; namely, gender diversity appears to have its highest impact (its 'ceiling') when the proportion of female directors is approximately 30%. Carrying out a sensitivity analysis, we conclude that hidden bias must be implausibly high to be able to attribute the beneficial effects of boardroom gender diversity to unmeasured confounding." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lackner, Mario (2021): Gender differences in competitiveness. To what extent can different attitudes towards competition for men and women explain the gender gap in labor markets? (IZA world of labor 236), 10 S. DOI:10.15185/izawol.236.v2

Abstract

"In addition to the well-documented gender pay gap, women are globally under-represented in top-level jobs. One obvious explanation for this is discrimination. Differences in attitudes toward competition, which are observed in the empirical literature, offer another explanation. These differences could partly explain the gender gaps in labor market outcomes. A future challenge is to mitigate the negative consequences of these gaps on the way to achieving gender equality in labor markets. Reforms of the educational systems could help to encourage competitive attitudes and affect educational choices of women. One possibility is to consider gender-segregated education in specific subjects. Some evidence suggests that any intervention is most likely to be successful during early ages. In contrast, preferences regarding competitiveness are found to evolve over time." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Comi, Simona, Mara Grasseni, Federica Origo & Laura Pagani (2020): Where women make a difference: Gender quotas and firms' performance in three European countries. In: ILR review, Jg. 73, H. 3, S. 768-793. DOI:10.1177/0019793919846450

Abstract

"The authors study the effect of corporate board gender quotas on firm performance in France, Italy, and Spain. The identification strategy exploits the exogenous variation in mandated gender quotas within country and over time and uses a counterfactual methodology. Using firm-level accounting data and a difference-in-difference estimator, the authors find that gender quotas had either a negative or an insignificant effect on firm performance in the countries considered with the exception of Italy, where they find a positive impact on productivity. The authors then focus on Italy. Using a novel data set containing detailed information on board members' characteristics, they offer possible explanations for the positive effect of gender quotas. The results provide an important contribution to the policy debate about the optimal design of legislation on corporate gender quotas." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Dixon-Fyle, Sundiatu, Vivian Hunt, Kevin Dolan & Sara Prince (2020): Diversity wins: How inclusion matters. New York, NY, 52 S.

Abstract

"The business case for inclusion and diversity (I&D) is stronger than ever. For diverse companies, the likelihood of outperforming industry peers on profitability has increased over time, while the penalties are getting steeper for those lacking diversity. Progress on representation has been slow, yet a few firms are making real strides. A close look at these diversity winners shows that a systematic, business-led approach and bold, concerted action on inclusion are needed to make progress." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Nguyen, Pascal (2020): Board gender diversity and cost of equity. In: Applied Economics Letters, Jg. 27, H. 18, S. 1522-1526. DOI:10.1080/13504851.2019.1693693

Abstract

"Evidence that women directors provide more effective monitoring suggests that greater board gender diversity is associated with lower cost of equity because of greater confidence in the firm's governance. We test this hypothesis using a sample of French firms over the period 2006-2017. The results show that cost of equity is significantly lower when firms have a higher proportion of women directors. It thus appears that mandatory quotas have allowed women directors to reach the critical mass needed to have significant impact." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Beltran, Arlette (2019): Female leadership and firm performance. In: Prague economic papers, Jg. 28, H. 3, S. 363-377. DOI:10.18267/j.pep.695

Abstract

"This study explores whether companies┐ experience benefits when the firm's CEO and owner are both women. It employs data from the 2009 - 2014 World Bank Enterprise Surveys (WBES) to measure firms' performance through growth in sales and productivity. Potential endogeneity was corrected by using the UN Gender Development Index and the average fertility rate as they comply with the exclusion restrictions. The paper uses the Control Function method with a Probit first stage estimation and an OLS main equation. The findings suggest that a female owner strengthens the female CEO's business skills and leads to better firm performance than when the CEO is a woman and the owner is a man." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Devicienti, Francesco, Elena Grinza, Alessandro Manello & Davide Vannoni (2019): What are the benefits of having more female leaders? Evidence from the use of part-time work in Italy. In: ILR review, Jg. 72, H. 4, S. 897-926. DOI:10.1177/0019793918800287

Abstract

"Using three waves of a representative survey of Italian private firms, the authors explore the impact of female managers on a firm's use of part-time work. Building on a literature that suggests female leaders display relatively more altruistic values compared to their male counterparts, the authors assess whether these differences manifest themselves in relation to working time arrangements offered by firms. Results, robust to controls for several time-varying firm-level characteristics and unobserved fixed firm heterogeneity, indicate that female managers are significantly more likely to limit the employment of involuntary part-time workers and correspondingly make greater use of full-time employees. Female managers also are more prone to grant part-time arrangements to employees who request them. Results also suggest that increasing the number of female business leaders may mitigate the problem of underemployment among involuntary part-time workers and contribute to the work - life balance of workers with child care or elder care activities." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bennouri, Moez, Tawhid Chtioui, Haithem Nagati & Mehdi Nekhili (2018): Female board directorship and firm performance. What really matters? In: Journal of Banking and Finance, Jg. 88, H. March, S. 267-291. DOI:10.1016/j.jbankfin.2017.12.010

Abstract

"Using a sample of 394 French firms for the period of 2001 to 2010, we study the relationship between female directorship and firms' accounting (ROA and ROE) and market-based (Tobin's Q) performance. We find that female directorship significantly increases ROA and ROE, and significantly decreases Tobin's Q. We postulate that these relationships are affected by the attributes of female directors. To this end, we collect a set of nine different attributes of female directors capturing their monitoring capabilities and contribution to the board's human capital (demographic and board relational attributes). We find that the positive relationship between accounting performance and female directorship remains when we include these attributes, while the negative relationship between Tobin's Q and female directorship disappears. Interestingly, the different attributes of female directors do not uniformly affect accounting and market-based performance. We explain the different relationships between attributes and firm performance by the tradeoff between the benefits and costs of diversity on board effectiveness, particularly in a low investor protection environment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Cuberes, David & Marc Teignier (2018): Macroeconomic costs of gender gaps in a model with entrepreneurship and household production. In: The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, Jg. 18, H. 1, S. 1-15. DOI:10.1515/bejm-2017-0031

Abstract

"This paper examines the quantitative effects of gender gaps in entrepreneurship and workforce participation in an occupational choice model with a household sector and endogenous female labor supply. Gender gaps in workforce participation have a direct negative effect on market, while gender gaps in entrepreneurship affect negatively market output not only by reducing wages and labor force participation but also by reducing the average talent of entrepreneurs and aggregate productivity. We estimate the effects of these gender gaps for 37 European countries, as well as the United States, and find that gender gaps cause an average loss of 17.5% in market output and 13.2% in total output, which also includes household output. Interestingly, the total output loss would be similar (12%) in a model without household sector, since the market output loss is larger when the female labor supply is endogenous. Eastern Europe is the region with the lowest income fall due to gender gaps, while Southern Europe is the region with the largest fall. Northern Europe is the region with the largest productivity fall, which is due to the presence of high gender gaps in entrepreneurship." (Author's abstract, © De Gruyter) ((en))

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De Paola, Maria, Francesca Gioia & Vincenzo Scoppa (2018): Teamwork, Leadership and Gender. (IZA discussion paper 11861), Bonn, 22 S.

Abstract

"We ran a field experiment to investigate whether individual performance in teams depends on the gender of the leader. About 430 students from an Italian University took an intermediate exam that was partly evaluated on the basis of teamwork. Students were randomly matched in teams of three and in each team we randomly chose a leader with the task of coordinating the work of the team. We find a positive and significant effect of female leadership on team performance. This effect is driven by the higher performance of team members in female led teams rather than due to an improvement in the leader's performance. We also find that, in spite of the higher performance of female led teams, male members tend to evaluate female leaders as less effective, whereas female members are more sympathetic towards them." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Green, Colin P. & Swarnodeep Homroy (2018): Female directors, board committees and firm performance. In: European Economic Review, Jg. 102, H. February, S. 19-38. DOI:10.1016/j.euroecorev.2017.12.003

Abstract

"A number of studies have found little economic impact of board gender diversity on firm performance. We return to this issue in the context of large European firms. Our contribution is twofold. First, using information on the gender of CEOs children as a source of exogenous variation in female director appointments, we demonstrate a robust positive effect of female board representation on firm performance. Second, while previous work has considered female representation broadly, we focus on membership of board committees as a proxy for active involvement in corporate governance. We demonstrate economically meaningful positive effects on performance of female representation on board committees. Our evidence is supportive of an economic rationale for increased female representation on corporate boards." (Author's abstract, © 2017 Elsevier) ((en))

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Krug, Gerhard, Jens Stegmaier & Antje Buche (2018): Are there negative consequences of workforce diversity? Investigating the effect of group faultlines on turnover and organizational performance. (SocArXiv Papers), 29 S. DOI:10.31235/osf.io/j9nc6

Abstract

"There is strong empirical evidence that workforce diversity is beneficial for organizations. The theoretical concept of faultlines stresses, however, that diversity can also have negative consequences. This is the case when the subgroups differ not just with regard to one characteristic but with regard to several characteristics simultaneously. This paper is the first to examine the negative consequences of faultlines with large-scale data on organizations in the public and private sector. Fixed-effects-regressions are used to investigate the impact of functional (working time, tenure, qualification) and demographic (age, gender, nationality) faultlines on turnover and organizational performance. We also consider the interaction between firm size and faultlines. Regarding turnover, we do not find the expected negative effects of demographic and only limited evidence for functional faultlines. The effects of demographic faultlines on performance, in turn, are negative for small organizations and become positive for organizations with more than 10 members." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Smith, Nina (2018): Gender quotas on boards of directors. Gender quotas for women on boards of directors improve female share on boards but firm performance effects are mixed. (IZA world of labor 7), Bonn, 10 S. DOI:10.15185/izawol.7.v2

Abstract

"Aus dem Blickwinkel der wirtschaftlichen Effizienz müssen zunächst die Aufstiegschancen für Frauen insgesamt verbessert werden, damit eine ausreichende Zahl qualifizierter weiblicher Führungskräfte für Vorstandsposten und das Top-Management zur Verfügung steht. Die Politik sollte daher ihren Fokus weniger auf Frauenquoten in den obersten Führungsgremien richten, sondern vielmehr ein ausgewogeneres Karrieregleichgewicht innerhalb von Familien fördern, beispielsweise durch zusätzliche Anreize für Väter, Elternzeit zu nehmen." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

Abstract

"Expectations for corporate directors are rising. Companies are more global and connected - and board oversight is increasingly more complex. Cybersecurity is a top area of focus, and social issues are starting to become part of strategy discussions. Meanwhile, institutional investors continue to push for board diversity. And directors recognize that every board member needs to bring something valuable to the table.
Directors are stepping up and embracing change. PwC's 2018 Annual Corporate Directors Survey shows that directors are listening more, learning more and engaging more. Read on to find out how." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Maceira, Helena Morais (2017): Economic benefits of gender equality in the EU. In: Intereconomics, Jg. 52, H. 3, S. 178-183. DOI:10.1007/s10272-017-0669-4

Abstract

"To analyse how gender equality measures can contribute to economic growth in the EU, the European Institute for Gender Equality studied the impacts of reducing gender inequalities in areas relevant from a macroeconomic perspective: STEM education, labour market activity and pay. It also considered the demographic changes that would take place if these gender gaps are reduced and a more equal distribution of unpaid care work between women and men is achieved. The study is the first of its kind to use a robust econometric model to estimate a broad range of macroeconomic benefits of gender equality at the EU level. The results of the modelling show that improved gender equality would have a largely positive effect on GDP per capita and on employment of women. The positive impacts are due to an increase in productivity and an improvement to the potential productive capacity of the economy.
This article is based on the results, outputs and publications of EIGE's work on the economic benefits of gender equality in the EU; see European Institute for Gender Equality: Economic Benefits of Gender Equality in the European Union, 2017, available at https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/sectoral-areas/economic-and-financial-affairs/economic-benefits-gender-equality. The study was commissioned by EIGE and carried out by ICF, Cambridge Econometrics and Collegio Carlo Alberto." (Author's abstract, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Shehata, Nermeen, Ahmed Salhin & Moataz El-Helaly (2017): Board diversity and firm performance. Evidence from the U.K. SMEs. In: Applied Economics, Jg. 49, H. 48, S. 4817-4832.

Abstract

"This study examines the relationship between board diversity and firm performance in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the U.K. In particular, we investigate the role of gender and age as two dimensions of diversity. Using a large sample of SMEs (34,798 firms) located in the U.K. and focusing on the period from 2005 to 2013, our results show a significant negative association between each of gender diversity and age diversity, and firm performance. Our evidence yields important insights on the association between board diversity and firm performance, and calls suggestions for increased board diversity into question. A possible explanation for our findings could be due to the fact that our sampled firms are SMEs, whereas those in previous studies have been large enterprises. This research provides insights to entrepreneurs on how to enhance their performance, and to governments and policymakers on the development of rules that would achieve better performance in the SME sector." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Amore, Mario Daniele & Orsola Garofalo (2016): Executive gender, competitive pressures, and corporate performance. In: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Jg. 131, H. November/Pt. A, S. 308-327. DOI:10.1016/j.jebo.2016.09.009

Abstract

"We investigate whether the gender of top executives influences a firm's reaction to competitive pressures. Our empirical approach is based on policy changes that varied the exposure of US banks to competition during the late 1990s. Results suggest that while banks with female executives experience significantly higher financial performance under low competition, they tend to underperform when competition increases. At the same time, we find that the presence of female leaders improves the capital stability of banks subject to greater competition. Overall, our study highlights strong interactions between executive gender and market structures in the determination of business outcomes" (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))