Can Gender Diversity Influence Liquidity and Risk of Companies?

Abstract

The gender diversity in boardrooms and high management positions of firms is a subject that has been gaining visibility, since it started to be seen as a corporate governance practice, regarding the participation in monitoring committees and the better disclosure of information. Thus, this paper sought to verify how gender diversity, through the participation of female directors and executives, impacts on the accounting liquidity and risk of companies listed in the Brazilian stock exchange. An analysis of unbalanced panel data was performed using the Generalized Method of Moments, considering 234 companies in the period from 2010 to 2016. Results showed that the number of women in those positions still small, and that the proportion of female directors is negatively linked to liquidity and positively linked to risk, contrary to much of the literature. For the proportion of female executives, the relation to liquidity was significant and positive. It can be inferred that female directors act as a corporate governance mechanism, being more confident and encouraging the risk-taking in order to meet the interests of shareholders, while female executives tend to be less confident, protecting their positions.