Investor Reactions to Board Changes: Does Gender Matter
Applied Economics Letters, Forthcoming
8 Pages Posted: 19 Sep 2019 Last revised: 3 Dec 2023
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: Suggested Citation