The impact of board gender composition on dividend payouts
The impact of board gender composition on dividend payouts
This paper investigates whether female independent directors are more likely to impose high dividend payouts. We find evidence that firms with a larger fraction of female directors on their board have greater dividend payouts. This finding is robust to alternative econometric specifications, and alternative measures of dividend payouts and female board representation. The positive effect of board gender composition on dividends remains when we employ propensity score matching, the instrumental variable approach, and difference-in-differences approach to address potential endogeneity concerns. Furthermore, we find that board gender composition significantly increases the dividend payout only for firms with weak governance, suggesting that female directors use dividend payouts as a governance device.
gender composition, board of directors, dividend payout, corporate governance
86-105
Chen, Jie
7181526d-ec25-480e-a35e-37bf4616e131
Leung, Woon Sau
73a8bf54-6035-4f11-a9ec-74272abbacb5
Goergen, Marc
d700632f-e4cc-41a7-978f-56b53c7d3764
13 January 2017
Chen, Jie
7181526d-ec25-480e-a35e-37bf4616e131
Leung, Woon Sau
73a8bf54-6035-4f11-a9ec-74272abbacb5
Goergen, Marc
d700632f-e4cc-41a7-978f-56b53c7d3764
Chen, Jie, Leung, Woon Sau and Goergen, Marc
(2017)
The impact of board gender composition on dividend payouts.
Journal of Corporate Finance, 43, .
(doi:10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.01.001).
Abstract
This paper investigates whether female independent directors are more likely to impose high dividend payouts. We find evidence that firms with a larger fraction of female directors on their board have greater dividend payouts. This finding is robust to alternative econometric specifications, and alternative measures of dividend payouts and female board representation. The positive effect of board gender composition on dividends remains when we employ propensity score matching, the instrumental variable approach, and difference-in-differences approach to address potential endogeneity concerns. Furthermore, we find that board gender composition significantly increases the dividend payout only for firms with weak governance, suggesting that female directors use dividend payouts as a governance device.
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Accepted/In Press date: 3 January 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 5 January 2017
Published date: 13 January 2017
Keywords:
gender composition, board of directors, dividend payout, corporate governance
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Local EPrints ID: 484610
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/484610
ISSN: 0929-1199
PURE UUID: dab72659-3b82-4b22-bfee-3ccf0b6e0d6a
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Date deposited: 17 Nov 2023 18:01
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 04:17
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Author:
Jie Chen
Author:
Woon Sau Leung
Author:
Marc Goergen
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