Restrictive and Supportive Mechanisms for Female Directors’ Risk-Averse Behavior: Evidence From South Asian Health Care Industry

This article aims to understand the impact of gender diversity on a firm’s equity volatility along with the moderating effect of chief executive officer (CEO) pay–performance sensitivity, institutional activism, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. The sample consists of 200 South Asian health care firms over the period 2010 to 2018. After confirming the prevalence of endogeneity, we rely on the results of system generalized method of moments (GMM) rather than any static model. The results show that a higher representation of women on the board can mitigate the firm’s equity volatility. The findings of the study also purport that CEOs with higher pay–performance sensitivity exploit female directors to take the excessive risk, whereas institutional investors support the risk-averse behavior of these directors. However, we find no statistical evidence that CSR activities moderate the relationship between gender diversity and firm’s equity volatility. Our results theoretically support both stakeholder and agency perspectives that South Asian capital markets should enhance the representation of women on board to mitigate agency conflicts and to improve long-term firm’s sustainability.