Does executive gender matter for corporate financial policies under uncertainty?

Yanyan Chen and Liubing Cheng

Global Finance Journal, 2025, vol. 65, issue C

Abstract: This study investigates the influence of CEO/CFO gender on corporate financial policies under uncertainty, including cash holdings, corporate investment, debt financing, and payout ratio. Using a sample of Chinese firms from 1999 to 2021, we find that during periods of high uncertainty, firms with female CEOs/CFOs do not exhibit greater risk aversion than those with male counterparts in financial activities. These findings persist even in firms with higher financial constraints or lower risk preferences. Our results remain robust when addressing model specification and endogeneity issues, controlling for other corporate financial behaviors and more executive characteristics, using alternative measures of uncertainty and corporate financial policies, and conducting sub-sample analysis. Overall, our findings suggest that gender differences in risk preferences might vanish in top management.

Keywords: Executive gender; Financial policies; Uncertainty; Risk preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1044028325000353
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:glofin:v:65:y:2025:i:c:s1044028325000353

DOI: 10.1016/j.gfj.2025.101108

Access Statistics for this article

Global Finance Journal is currently edited by Manuchehr Shahrokhi

More articles in Global Finance Journal from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().