Two Issues on Gender Differences in Corporate Finance(1/2)

The effect of gender differences in the top of an organization on government and corporate policies are mixed and unclear in literature. We attempt to investigate the effect of gender differences by using two quasi-natural experiments of ascensions of chairwoman and female leadership position in Congress and the passage of female director quota legislation in California. We expect that (i) the appointments of chairwoman or female leadership in Congress would make significant changes in government policies and in turn firm policies including firm value and operating performance and (ii) the passage of gender quota in the boardroom for California firms would results in worse firm value and operating performance than firms in other states, and skill mismatching induced by the passage would be the main reason.