The effect of board gender diversity on corporate social performance: An instrumental variable quantile regression approach

Abstract

Investigating a sample of firms from the S&P 500 Index (between 2004 and 2015), the paper addresses the relationship between the representation of Women on Corporate Boards (WOCB) and the Corporate Social Performance (CSP). It adopts the instrumental variable quantile regression panel data (IV-QRPD) model, suggested by Powell (2016), to solve endogeneity and heterogeneity issues. The article shows a strong “threshold effect”: the impact of board feminization on CSP is nonlinear and changes along the quantiles of the performance distribution. Highlighting a contextual and multilevel phenomenon, the paper contributes to the CG literature offering main achievements on board’s dynamics and inclusiveness.