Investor Reactions to Board Changes: Does Gender Matter

Applied Economics Letters, Forthcoming

8 Pages Posted: 19 Sep 2019 Last revised: 3 Dec 2023

See all articles by Anthony Sanford

Anthony Sanford

HEC Montreal - Department of Finance

Joannie Tremblay-Boire

University of Maryland - School of Public Policy

Date Written: September 11, 2019

Abstract

Using event studies, we estimate investor reactions to board of directors composition. Specifically, we study whether the gender of incoming board members matters to investors. Scholarly evidence indicates that women and men in leadership positions are alike. Yet, the number of women in leadership in the United States is low. Based on BoardEx data on the composition of U.S. public firm boards for 1992-2017, we find that, in the very short term, incoming female board members are consistently perceived as a larger negative information shock by investors than incoming male board members.

Keywords: asset pricing, gender, stock performance, event study, information shocks

JEL Classification: G00, G1, G12, J16, J00

Suggested Citation

Sanford, Anthony and Tremblay-Boire, Joannie, Investor Reactions to Board Changes: Does Gender Matter (September 11, 2019). Applied Economics Letters, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3367488 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3367488

Anthony Sanford (Contact Author)

HEC Montreal - Department of Finance ( email )

3000 Chemin de la Cote-Sainte-Catherine
Montreal, Quebec H3T 2A7
Canada

Joannie Tremblay-Boire

University of Maryland - School of Public Policy ( email )

2101 Van Munching Hall
College Park, MD 20742
United States

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