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

Download as .RIS

Citation

Flabbi, Luca; Macis, Mario; Moro, Andrea; & Schivardi, Fabiano (2019). Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance. Economic Journal, 129(622), 2390-2423.

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 a negative impact 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 in which female executives are better at interpreting signals of productivity from female workers. This suggests substantial costs of women under-representation among executives

URL

https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uez012

Reference Type

Journal Article

Year Published

2019

Journal Title

Economic Journal

Author(s)

Flabbi, Luca
Macis, Mario
Moro, Andrea
Schivardi, Fabiano

ORCiD

Flabbi - 0000-0002-2339-7691