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Female Board Representation and Corporate Performance: A Review and New Estimates for Australia

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  • Bayly, Nicholas

    (Australian National University)

  • Breunig, Robert

    (Australian National University)

  • Wokker, Chris

    (Australian National University)

Abstract

Despite a conventional wisdom that female board members positively impact firm performance, a thorough examination of the research to date reveals no consensus that female board members have either a positive or negative effect on firm performance. We build the largest dataset of Australian board appointments assembled to date. We use our data to demonstrate how difficult it is to replicate existing research, with one example from Australia and one from the US. Using event studies and regression analyses we demonstrate that there is little evidence that female board representation affects firm financial performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Bayly, Nicholas & Breunig, Robert & Wokker, Chris, 2023. "Female Board Representation and Corporate Performance: A Review and New Estimates for Australia," IZA Discussion Papers 16617, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16617
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    firm performance; board of directors; gender representation; female directors;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • N20 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

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