 The Old Boys’ Club and Board Gender Diversity: Evidence from the Anti-corruption Campaign in ChinaJiapin Deng and Di Lu Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2024, vol. 221, issue C, 626-656 Abstract: This paper reveals that male-dominant social networks through alcohol drinking is an important determinant that hinders women ascending onto corporate boards. Specifically, exploiting China's anti-corruption campaign launched in 2012 as an exogenous shock to the business drinking interactions, we find that the policy-induced reduction in alcohol drinking significantly promotes board gender diversity in Chinese listed firms. Further evidence shows that the effect of reduced alcohol drinking on board gender diversity is more pronounced in cities with a higher intensity of anti-corruption investigations and cities with less severe gender discrimination. Our empirical findings support the “old boys’ club” hypothesis, suggesting that male-dominant social networks hamper the access of qualified women to higher positions in the workplace. Keywords: Board gender diversity; Alcohol drinking; Anti-corruption; Social networks (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:221:y:2024:i:c:p:626-656 DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2024.04.011 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D. More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier |
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