Gender diverse board and earnings management: evidence from French listed companies

Sana Triki Damak

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, 2018, vol. 9, issue 3, 289-312

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of board gender diversity on earnings management level and strategy. Design/methodology/approach - This study is conducted in the French context where firms are pressured since 2010 to appoint more women on boards. More specifically, this research is based on a sample of 85 companies listed in the SBF120 over 2010-2014. A number of econometric techniques are used including generalized least squares to test the panel regressions. Findings - The results suggest that women on boards are effective in their monitoring role. Indeed, the findings show a significant negative effect of board women presence on earnings management practices level. However, there is no empirical evidence that board gender diversity affects the earnings management strategy. Moreover, the results reveal that some control variables influence significantly the earnings management level and strategy. Practical implications - The findings support the efforts made by French political bodies to increase gender diversity on corporate boards, and might inspire political actors of other countries to take initiatives to regulate the promotion of women’s appointment on boards of directors. Social implications - This paper contributes to the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice. Indeed, the findings highlight the beneficial effects of women participation in power and decision-making positions. Originality/value - This research contributes to the debate around gender diversity on boards. Most prior studies that have analyzed the relationship between gender diversity and earnings management were conducted in a voluntary context of appointing women on boards. This paper extends prior research by addressing this issue differently and in a regulated context: where the government set mandatory quotas for female board representation.

Keywords: Corporate governance; Earnings management; Board composition; Board gender diversity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

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:eme:sampjp:sampj-08-2017-0088

DOI: 10.1108/SAMPJ-08-2017-0088

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal is currently edited by Prof Carol Adams

More articles in Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().