Gender Diversity, Labour in the Boardroom and Gender Quotas

Astrid Kunze () and Katrin Scharfenkamp ()
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Astrid Kunze: Norwegian School of Economics
Katrin Scharfenkamp: University of Bielefeld

No 15691, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This study investigates boards of (non-executive) directors and whether employee representation has a positive effect on gender diversity on boards. We exploit rich, newly assembled board–director matched panel data for Norway and Germany, which contain unique information on whether a director represents shareholders or employees during the period around 2008, when a Norwegian board gender quota came into effect. We present two novel results that challenge previous thinking about the effects of board gender quotas on women directors. First, we find a positive impact of employee representation before the gender quota reform on gender diversity. Second, although the Norwegian gender quota has increased the probability of a director being female, the effect through employee representation has relatively decreased after the implementation of the reform. We discuss potential mechanisms and implications for the design of co-determination laws and gender quotas.

Keywords: affirmative action; employee representation; shared governance; co-determination; women; boards of directors; firm size (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G3 J16 K3 L21 L25 M54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 2022-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hrm and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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