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Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance

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  • Flabbi, Luca
  • Macis, Mario
  • Moro, Andrea
  • Schivardi, Fabiano

Abstract

We analyze a matched employer-employee panel data set and find that female leadership has a positive effect on female wages at the top of the distribution, and a negative one at the bottom. Moreover, performance in firms with female leadership increases with the share of female workers. This evidence is consistent with a model where female executives are better equipped at interpreting signals of productivity from female workers. This suggests substantial costs of under-representation of women at the top: for example, if women became CEOs of firms with at least 20% female employment, sales per worker would increase 6.7%.

Suggested Citation

  • Flabbi, Luca & Macis, Mario & Moro, Andrea & Schivardi, Fabiano, 2014. "Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance," CEPR Discussion Papers 10228, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10228
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    Cited by:

    1. Chiara Pronzato & Paola Profeta & Valeria Ferraro & Giulia Ferrari, 2016. "Gender Quotas: Challenging the Boards, Performance, and the Stock Market," Working Papers id:11411, eSocialSciences.
    2. Frimmel, Wolfgang & Horvath, Thomas & Schnalzenberger, Mario & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2015. "Seniority Wages and the Role of Firms in Retirement," Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113163, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Mario Macis, 2017. "Gender differences in wages and leadership," IZA World of Labor, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), pages 323-323, January.
    4. Kunze, Astrid & Miller, Amalia, 2014. "Women Helping Women? Evidence from Private Sector Data on Workplace Hierarchies," IZA Discussion Papers 8725, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
    5. Sandra Cavaco & Patricia Crifo & Antoine Rebérioux & Gwenaël Roudaut, 2014. "Independent directors: less informed, but better selected? New evidence from a two-way director-firm fixed effect model," EconomiX Working Papers 2014-58, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    6. Khalid Sekkat & Ariane Szafarz & Ilan Tojerow, 2015. "Women at the Top in Developing Countries: Evidence from Firm-Level Data," Working Papers CEB 15-048, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    7. Flabbi, Luca & Macis, Mario & Moro, Andrea & Schivardi, Fabiano, 2014. "Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance," IZA Discussion Papers 8602, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
    8. Devicienti, Francesco & Fanfani, Bernardo & Maida, Agata, 2016. "Collective Bargaining and the Evolution of Wage Inequality in Italy," IZA Discussion Papers 10293, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
    9. Mario Bossler & Alexander Mosthaf & Thorsten Schank, 2016. "More Female Manager Hires through More Female Managers? Evidence from Germany," Working Papers 1618, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    10. repec:bla:jorssa:v:180:y:2017:i:3:p:793-816 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Alexander Ahammer & G. Thomas Horvath & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2017. "The effect of income on mortality—new evidence for the absence of a causal link," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 180(3), pages 793-816, June.
    12. Lucifora, Claudio & Vigani, Daria, 2016. "What If Your Boss Is a Woman? Work Organization, Work-Life Balance and Gender Discrimination at the Workplace," IZA Discussion Papers 9737, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
    13. Theune, Katja & Behr, Andreas, 2016. "Female firm leadership. Extent and performance in 14 EU member states," Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145798, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    14. Morikawa, Masayuki, 2016. "What types of companies have female directors? Evidence from Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37, pages 1-7.
    15. Gagliarducci, Stefano & Paserman, M. Daniele, 2014. "The Effect of Female Leadership on Establishment and Employee Outcomes: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data," IZA Discussion Papers 8647, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
    16. Giulia La Mattina & Gabriel Picone & Alban Ahoure & Jose Carlos Kimou, 2017. "Female leaders and gender gaps within the firm: Evidence from three sub-Saharan African countries," WIDER Working Paper Series 063, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    17. Lone Engbo Christiansen & Huidan Huidan Lin & Joana Pereira & Petia Topalova & Rima Turk, 2016. "Gender Diversity in Senior Positions and Firm Performance; Evidence from Europe," IMF Working Papers 16/50, International Monetary Fund.
    18. Jaspersen, Stefan & Limbach, Peter, 2017. "Knowing Me, Knowing You? Similarity to the CEO and Fund Managers’ Investment Decisions," CFR Working Papers 17-02, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    19. International Monetary Fund, 2016. "Italy; Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 16/223, International Monetary Fund.
    20. Devicienti, Francesco & Grinza, Elena & Manello, Alessandro & Vannoni, Davide, 2016. "Which Are the Benefits of Having More Female Leaders? Evidence from the Use of Part-Time Work in Italy," IZA Discussion Papers 10314, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    executives’ gender; firm performance; gender gap; glass ceiling; statistical discrimination;

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J7 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation
    • M5 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics

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