Women directors on corporate boards of Philippine publicly listed firms: Can board gender diversity curb investment inefficiency?

• Main Authors: Montalbo, Gillian Maegan R., Gayamo, Hannah B., Orate, Yvan Kyle T., Parrocho, Jem Rhey B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Women directors of corporations—Philippines; Sex role in the work environment—Philippines; Corporations—Philippines—Finance; Business Administration, Management, and Operations; Finance and Financial Management
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdb_econ/60
• Institution: De La Salle University

Women have made great strides in taking management roles in recent years. But the present corporate landscape hints that the glass ceiling still exists, and true gender equity is not yet realized. While previous literature has focused on exploring the role of board gender diversity in corporate investment decisions and outcomes of developed economies, minimal empirical attention is given to their developing counterparts. Using the 2010 to 2019 data of Philippine publicly traded firms, we examine the relationship between board gender diversity and investment inefficiency, propounding that the inherent risk-averse behavior of women can mitigate suboptimal firm investments. Employing a two-step Generalized Methods of Moments to account for endogeneity issues, we find no empirical evidence to conclude that firms with gender-diverse boards can curb investment inefficiencies. The three rounds of robustness checks we conduct assert these results. Overall, we find no link between board gender diversity and investment inefficiency in the Philippine corporate setting.