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Female firm leadership. Extent and performance in 14 EU member states

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  • Theune, Katja
  • Behr, Andreas

Abstract

Evidence on female firm leadership is scarce and often confined to a small number of firms included in share price indices. Our large firm level data set from 2011 contains 441287 firms from 14 EU states. Based on management information, we provide evidence for the extent and the performance of female-led firms. We find strong differences in the extent of female firm leaders between the 14 states but for most countries no evidence for significant performance differences between male- and female-led firms, neither for the whole country samples nor within six broadly defined sectors. This result is confirmed when applying a matching approach to account for potential selection problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Theune, Katja & Behr, Andreas, 2016. "Female firm leadership. Extent and performance in 14 EU member states," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145798, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:vfsc16:145798
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation

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