Does board gender diversity influence dividend policy? Evidence from France

Pornsit Jiraporn, Mondher Bouattour (), Amal Hamrouni and Ali Uyar
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Pornsit Jiraporn: Penn State - Pennsylvania State University - Penn State System
Mondher Bouattour: CERIIM - Centre de Recherche en Intelligence et Innovation Managériales - Excelia Group | La Rochelle Business School, LGCO - Laboratoire Gouvernance et Contrôle Organisationnel - UT3 - Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier - UT - Université de Toulouse
Amal Hamrouni: CEREGE [Poitiers, La Rochelle] - Centre de recherche en gestion [EA 1722] - UP - Université de Poitiers = University of Poitiers - ULR - La Rochelle Université
Ali Uyar: CERIIM - Centre de Recherche en Intelligence et Innovation Managériales - Excelia Group | La Rochelle Business School

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Abstract: Prior research shows that board gender diversity helps improve board quality and effectiveness. Using a sample of French companies, we find that board gender diversity leads to a stronger probability for firm to pay dividends as well as to larger dividends. Our results are consistent with the notion that female directors improve the monitoring function of the board, thereby forcing managers to disgorge more cash out in the form of larger dividends. The free cash flow problem is mitigated as larger dividends reduce the free cash flow left inside the firm that could be exploited by opportunistic managers.

Keywords: female directors; dividends; dividend policy; corporate governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-12-21
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04754236v1
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Published in Economics Bulletin, 2019, 39 (4), pp.2942-2954

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