Lehman Sisters: Female Bank Executives and Risk-Taking

Yan Wendy Wu

LCERPA Working Papers from Laurier Centre for Economic Research and Policy Analysis

Abstract: This paper studies the impact of female executives on risk-taking within US banks. An examination of US bank panel data from 2002 to 2010 provides evidence that female executives reduce levels of risk-taking in banks. We also find that a more balanced gender ratio has a greater impact on bank risk-taking than merely with the presence of female executive. The results are robust to alternative specifications of riskiness and instrument variable approach. However, when we only use part of the sample period surrounding the financial crises of 2007-2008, the results do not hold. We interpret the results as suggesting that having female executives and more balanced gender ratios in the executive team reduces bank risk-taking overall. But the risk-reduction becomes less effective during crisis years.

Keywords: Gender; Female; Bank Executive; Diversity; Risk-taking; Lehman sister (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G21 G28 J16 J48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-03-01, Revised 2017-03-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-gen and nep-rmg
Note: LCERPA Working Paper No. 2017-1
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wlu:lcerpa:0100

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