Board generational diversity in emerging markets

To identify the determinants of the generational diversity of board membership in emerging market firms, we conducted an empirical analysis using state-level social inequality indices and data on 14,598 listed/unlisted firms from 20 Eastern European countries and China. We found that, in these emerging markets, social inequality strongly inhibits the generational diversity of board membership, regardless of the gender of board members. The results also reveal that four firm attributes—board size, CEO duality, state ownership, and the presence of foreign investors from non-advanced economies as firm owners—significantly affect the age composition of board directors in line with our expectations. Two other firm attributes—ownership concentration and firm ownership by foreign investors from advanced economies—are also found to have a significant impact on board generational diversity; however, the direction of their impact contradicts our predictions. Supplementary estimations carried out by introducing various sample restrictions produce similar results, thus confirming the statistical robustness of our findings.