Gender Diversity in Senior Positions and Firm Performance: Evidence from Europe

By Lone Engbo Christiansen, Huidan Huidan Lin, Joana Pereira, Petia Topalova, Rima A Turk

March 7, 2016

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Lone Engbo Christiansen, Huidan Huidan Lin, Joana Pereira, Petia Topalova, and Rima A Turk. Gender Diversity in Senior Positions and Firm Performance: Evidence from Europe, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2016) accessed December 30, 2024

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

This paper examines the link between gender diversity in senior corporate positions and financial performance of 2 million companies in Europe. We document a positive association between corporate return on assets and the share of women in senior positions and establish two potential channels through which gender diversity may affect firm performance. The positive correlation is more pronounced in, first, sectors where women form a larger share of the labor force (such as the services sector) and, second, where complementarities in skills and critical thinking are in high demand (such as high-tech and knowledge-intensive sectors).

Subject: Gender, Gender diversity, Labor, Labor force, National accounts, Personal income, Women

Keywords: Company board, Europe, Firm, Firm in an industry, Firm performance, Firms in Ukraine, Gender diversity, Industry, Industry level, Labor force, Performing firm, Personal income, Senior management, Share, Single-manager firm, Women, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

29
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2016/050
Stock No:

WPIEA2016050
ISBN:

9781513553283
ISSN:

1018-5941

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