Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadreship on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance

Luca Flabbi, Mario Macis, Andrea Moro and Fabiano Schivardi

CHILD Working Papers Series from Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA

Abstract: We investigate the effects of female executives on gender-specific wage distributions and firm performance. Female leadership has a positive impact at the top of the female wage distribution and negative at the bottom. The impact of female leadership on firm performance increases with the share of female workers. We account for the endogeneity induced by non-random executives’ gender by including firm fixed-effects, by generating controls from a two-way fixed effects regression, and by using instruments based on regional trends. The findings are consistent with a model of statistical discrimination where female executives are better at interpreting signals of productivity from female workers. This suggests substantial costs of women under-representation among executives.

Keywords: executives' gender; gender gap; firm performance; glass ceiling; statistical discrimination. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 pages
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance (2019)
Working Paper: Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance (2016)
Working Paper: Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance (2015)
Working Paper: Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance (2015)
Working Paper: Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance (2014)
Working Paper: Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance (2014)
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