The effect of board gender diversity on firm value: A study on Philippine publicly listed firms

• Main Authors: Dimaunahan, Diandra Denise M., Roxas, Gerard Joseph B., Villacorta, Janyka Mignon S., Wong, Jeremy C.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2010
• Subjects: Gender identity in the workplace > Philippines; Diversity in the workplace > Philippines; Financial institutions > Philippines; Finance and Financial Management
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/18380
• Institution: De La Salle University

To our knowledge, there are no studies that examined if there is a business case for board gender diversity in the Philippines to this date. This study hypothesizes that board gender diversity, as measured by the percentage of female directors to total board of directors, a dummy variable, and the Blau and Shannon indices have an effect on firm value (Tobin's Q). In support of the first hypothesis, we also hypothesize that better performing firms have a higher percentage of diversity. We use empirical data of 155 listed firms from the years 2003-2007. On the average, only 12% of the total boards are females for the five years. In order to test our hypotheses, ordinary least-squares estimation was applied and deemed more appropriate than two-stage least square method. Results show that gender diversity is significantly and negatively correlated to firm value. Moreover, firm value is significantly and negatively correlated to gender diversity.