Board Diversity and Performance of Philippine Firms: Do Women Matter?

Abstract

The issue of gender diversity on corporate boards is attracting research interest because of purported contributions of women directors, including improved monitoring, ethical focus, and democratic leadership. This rationale forms part of the economic case for women’s participation on corporate boards, as opposed to alternative arguments based on social or equality considerations. In this study, we examined the effect of board diversity for Philippine firms during the period 2003 to 2014. Using an unbalanced panel of 2648 firm-years, we found that greater board diversity did not significantly affect either short-term firm performance or long-term firm value. Our findings show that female and male corporate leaders have comparable competency levels and that increasing women’s presence on corporate boards has no discernible effect on firm performance.