scholarly journals A Female Style in Corporate Leadership? Evidence from Quotas

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 136-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A Matsa ◽  
Amalia R Miller

This paper studies the impact of gender quotas for corporate board seats on corporate decisions. We examine the introduction of Norway's 2006 quota, comparing affected firms to other Nordic companies, public and private, that are unaffected by the rule. We find that affected firms undertake fewer workforce reductions than comparison firms, increasing relative labor costs and employment levels and reducing short-term profits. The effects are strongest among firms without female board members beforehand and are present even for boards with older and more experienced members afterward. The boards appear to be affecting corporate strategy in part by selecting like-minded executives. (JEL G34, J16, J78, M12, M51)

Author(s):  
Carlos Fernando Estrada

This research focuses on the potential benefits of aligning corporate Information Technologies (IT) with the information needs of Board members to provide pertinent and timely information under good Corporate Governance (CG) practices.  The recent near collapse of some major corporations evidences poor regulatory supervision by all parties, both public and private.  An abundance of regulations notwithstanding, stakeholder interests (both internal and external) have not been protected or served by many corporate boards.  Many shareholders have virtually lost their capital, workers have been unemployed, and government and taxpayers have had to foot steep bills.   Well informed Board members should, in theory, make decisions that benefit their stakeholders and society as well.  Thus, corporate board members should focus on IT as a key resource and ally in monitoring their business strategies and operations. IT permeates throughout business processes and across functional areas in most businesses, so if IT reporting is aligned with corporate governance objectives as well as operational objectives, it has the potential to aid greatly in governance.  An important consideration of course, is what information is provide, and how the Board utilizes it for the stakeholders' benefit.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (7A) ◽  
pp. 1069-1076
Author(s):  
Layth T. Ali ◽  
Raid S. Abid Ali ◽  
Zeyad S. M. Khaled

Cost overrun in construction projects is a common phenomenon in Iraq. This might occur due to diversity of factors. This study aims to identify the factors influencing construction projects cost that are potentially controllable by main contractors. A field study through a questionnaire survey was directed to a sample of related Iraqi professional engineers from general contracting companies at both public and private sectors. Their opinions on the impact and frequency of each factor were investigated. The questionnaire offered (59) factors classified in (8) categories namely; legislations, financial and economic, design, contractual, site management, material, labor and equipment. The factors were ranked according to the highest Relative Importance Index (RII). The study revealed (10) major factors that are potentially controllable by main contractors namely; labor productivity, sub-contractors and suppliers performance, equipment productivity, site organization and distribution of equipment, experience and training of project managers, scheduling and control techniques, planning for materials supply, planning for equipment supply, materials delivery and planning for skilled labor recruitment. Recommendations to aid contractors and owners in early identification of these factors are also included in this study.


2020 ◽  
pp. 54-62
Author(s):  
Oleksii V. Lyulyov ◽  
Oleksandra I. Karintseva ◽  
Andrii V. Yevdokymov ◽  
Hanna S. Ponomarova ◽  
Oleksandr O. Ivanov

The article describes the situation of gender equality in Ukraine and in the world during the last 5 years, identifies the leading countries in moving towards gender equality in various fields of life by analyzing the indicators of the Global Gender Gap Report of the World Economic Forum. These indicators include: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, Political Empowerment, which are the part of a single index that determines the position of countries in the overall ranking. Based on the results of this analysis, Ukraine has improved value of gender equality index, although in the overall ranking of countries Ukraine has lost its position and dropped 11 ranks lower than in 2014. This means that, among all the countries surveyed by the World Economic Forum, there are countries that are moving much faster towards gender equality than Ukraine. In addition, the article includes the investigation of the gender representation among the board members of 5 enterprises of Ukraine for 2014-2017, which represent the leading sectors of the Ukrainian economy. The dynamics of changes in the level of performance of these enterprises using the return on assets (ROA) indicator is analyzed, the relationship between the leadership of the enterprises and the value of the ROA indicator is graphically presented. The obtained results do not give a clear answer about the gender impact on the enterprise performance. The reason for this is a number of factors, such as: insufficient statistical sampling of enterprises; the selected performance indicator of enterprise activities does not fully reflect the impact of the gender factor on enterprise activities; the methodology used in the work needs improvements, or it is necessary to choose a totally new approach to the analysis of the investigated issue under study. Gender representation among board members and its impact on enterprise performance should be investigated further. Key words: gender, gender equality, enterprise board members, return on assets.


Author(s):  
Ruth Rubio-Marín

This chapter explores how human rights law has contributed to the shift towards participatory gender equality by legitimating the adoption of quotas and parity mechanisms to ensure women’s equal participation in decision-making. Since the adoption of CEDAW, human rights law has moved away from formal equality notions that simply affirm women’s equal political rights. Instead, we see growing endorsement of substantive equality doctrines that validate the adoption of gender quotas, initially as temporary special measures to ensure women equal opportunities, and, more recently, as permanent measures targeting the gender-balanced composition of an ever-expanding range of public and private governance bodies. The chapter explores how human rights law connects this participatory turn to issues of pluralism, calling attention to the need for public bodies to represent the full diversity of the population, and calling on state parties to increase the participation of women from ethnic minorities, indigenous groups, and religious minorities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ka Chun Chong ◽  
Hong Fung ◽  
Carrie Ho Kwan Yam ◽  
Patsy Yuen Kwan Chau ◽  
Tsz Yu Chow ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The elderly healthcare voucher (EHCV) scheme is expected to lead to an increase in the number of elderly people selecting private primary healthcare services and reduce reliance on the public sector in Hong Kong. However, studies thus far have reported that this scheme has not received satisfactory responses. In this study, we examined changes in the ratio of visits between public and private doctors in primary care (to measure reliance on the public sector) for different strategic scenarios in the EHCV scheme. Methods Based on comments from an expert panel, a system dynamics model was formulated to simulate the impact of various enhanced strategies in the scheme: increasing voucher amounts, lowering the age eligibility, and designating vouchers for chronic conditions follow-up. Data and statistics for the model calibration were collected from various sources. Results The simulation results show that the current EHCV scheme is unable to reduce the utilization of public healthcare services, as well as the ratio of visits between public and private primary care among the local aging population. When comparing three different tested scenarios, even if the increase in the annual voucher amount could be maintained at the current pace or the age eligibility can be lowered to include those aged 60 years, the impact on shifts from public-to-private utilization were insignificant. The public-to-private ratio could only be marginally reduced from 0.74 to 0.64 in the first several years. Nevertheless, introducing a chronic disease-oriented voucher could result in a significant drop of 0.50 in the public-to-private ratio during the early implementation phase. However, the effect could not be maintained for an extended period. Conclusions Our findings will assist officials in improving the design of the EHCV scheme, within the wider context of promoting primary care among the elderly. We suggest that an additional chronic disease-oriented voucher can serve as an alternative strategy. The scheme must be redesigned to address more specific objectives or provide a separate voucher that promotes under-utilized healthcare services (e.g., preventive care), instead of services designed for unspecified reasons, which may lead to concerns regarding exploitation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-204
Author(s):  
Pankaj Sinha ◽  
Naina Grover

This study analyses the impact of competition on liquidity creation by banks and investigates the dynamics between diversification, liquidity creation and competition for banks operating in India during the period from 2005 to 2018. Using the broad and narrow measures of liquidity creation, an inverse relationship is determined between liquidity creation and competition. The study also indicates a trade-off between pro-competitive policies to improve consumer welfare and the liquidity-destroying effects of competition, and it highlights how diversification affects liquidity creation. Highly diversified banks in India create less liquidity compared with less-diversified banks, both public and private. The liquidity-destroying effects of competition is intensified among highly diversified private banks, which suggest that diversification has not moderated the adverse impact of competition. JEL Codes: G01, G18, G21, G28


Author(s):  
Dennis Fleischer

Social aspects like gender diversity in the boardroom are becoming increasingly relevant and are a popular topic of public debate in the context of gender equality in business. However, there is little clarity about the potential spill-over effects of gender diversity. Both theory and empirical results have led to ambiguous conclusions with respect to the effect of gender diversity in the supervisory board on gender diversity in the management board. In addition, it is not clear whether the German gender quota legislation positively affects this relationship. This study analyses whether gender diversity in the supervisory board supports the gender diversity of the management board, and whether this relationship is affected by the gender quota legislation, focusing on the unique case of Germany. To cope with endogeneity concerns, this study employs a cross-lagged panel model with fixed effects using maximum likelihood structural equation modelling. The results of the analysis of the impact of the number of female supervisory board members on the number of female management board members do not support the view of positive spill-over effects of gender diversity in the environment of the German two-tier corporate governance system. Furthermore, this study finds no evidence of an effect of the German gender quota on this relationship. JEL Codes G38, M12, M14, M51


Author(s):  
Emanuele Teti ◽  
Ilaria Montefusco

AbstractThis paper aims to analyse the impact of firms’ corporate governance characteristics on the degree of first-day returns (i.e., underpricing) in the Italian initial public offering (IPO) market. In particular, this work investigates the impacts of the characteristics of boards of directors (BoDs) and ownership structure on the underpricing of newly offered shares. By studying a sample of 128 Italian IPOs between 2000 and 2016, it is concluded that corporate governance characteristics affect the degree of first-day returns following a company’s IPO. More specifically, the size of the BoD negatively affects underpricing, while the ownership of institutional investors and board members has a positive effect on the degree of underpricing. Conversely, no significant evidence is found with regard to board independence, the number of female directors in the boardroom, the implementation of stock option plans and ownership concentration.


2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 352-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Baumann ◽  
Tim Friehe

AbstractThis paper analyzes the effects of regulatory uncertainty regarding labor costs on investment in a liberalized market. We distinguish between the external investment margin (market entry) and the internal investment margin (technology), and establish that regulatory uncertainty affects these margins differently, encouraging market entry, but discouraging technological investment. As a consequence, the impact of regulatory uncertainty on competition in liberalized markets is a combination of these two countervailing forces.


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