Lehman Sisters

48 Pages Posted: 17 Jan 2014 Last revised: 3 Sep 2015

See all articles by Renee B. Adams

Renee B. Adams

University of Oxford

Vanitha Ragunathan

University of Queensland - Business School; Financial Research Network (FIRN)

Date Written: August 1, 2015

Abstract

Would the crisis have happened if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters? Evidence on population gender differences in risk-aversion suggest not. Consistent with the idea that female managers need not be more risk-averse than men, we find that listed banks with more female directors did not engage in fewer risk-taking activities around the crisis and did not have lower risk than other banks. However, banks with more diverse boards had better performances, even in instrumental variable regressions. Our results suggest that more gender diversity is not necessarily associated with less risk. However, diversity may be valuable in crisis situations.

Keywords: Women, Risk-Aversion, Risk, Crisis, Bank, Board of Directors

JEL Classification: G34, G38, G21, G28, J16, J78

Suggested Citation

Adams, Renée B. and Ragunathan, Vanitha, Lehman Sisters (August 1, 2015). FIRN Research Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2380036 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2380036

Renée B. Adams (Contact Author)

University of Oxford ( email )

Park End Street
Oxford, OX1 1HP
Great Britain

Vanitha Ragunathan

University of Queensland - Business School ( email )

Brisbane, Queensland 4072
Australia
(07) 3365 8204 (Phone)
(07) 3365 6988 (Fax)

Financial Research Network (FIRN) ( email )

C/- University of Queensland Business School
St Lucia, 4071 Brisbane
Queensland
Australia

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
1,776
Abstract Views
12,861
Rank
7,032
PlumX Metrics