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The impact of board gender composition on dividend payouts

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  • Chen, Jie
  • Leung, Woon Sau
  • Goergen, Marc

Abstract

This paper investigates whether female independent directors are more likely to impose high dividend payouts. We find evidence that firms with a larger fraction of female directors on their board have greater dividend payouts. This finding is robust to alternative econometric specifications, and alternative measures of dividend payouts and female board representation. The positive effect of board gender composition on dividends remains when we employ propensity score matching, the instrumental variable approach, and difference-in-differences approach to address potential endogeneity concerns. Furthermore, we find that board gender composition significantly increases the dividend payout only for firms with weak governance, suggesting that female directors use dividend payouts as a governance device.

Suggested Citation

  • Chen, Jie & Leung, Woon Sau & Goergen, Marc, 2017. "The impact of board gender composition on dividend payouts," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 86-105.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:43:y:2017:i:c:p:86-105
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.01.001
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender composition; Board of directors; Dividend payout; Corporate governance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General
    • G35 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Payout Policy
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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