Abstract
In 2005, Norway became the first country to mandate gender-balanced corporate boards. We hypothesize that a gender quota reduces director CEO experience and increases board independence. Contrary to prior research, our robust performance estimates fail to reject an overall value-neutral effect of the quota, even for firms with all-male boards. We also show that, while boards lost some CEO experience, firms did not increase board size (to retain key male directors) or change legal form (to avoid the quota), and managed to maintain board network power. We conclude that investors and firms alike viewed the quota as a relatively low-cost constraint.
Full Text
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call