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Abstract
We investigate the effects of female executives on gender-specific wage distributions and firm performance.
We find that female leadership has a positive impact at the top of the female wage
distribution and a negative impact at the bottom. Moreover, the impact of female leadership
on firm performance increases with the share of female workers.
Our empirical strategy accounts for the endogeneity induced by the non-random assignment of executives to
firms by including in the regressions firm fixed effects, by generating controls from
a two-way fixed effects regression, and by building instruments based on regional trends.
The empirical findings are consistent with a model of statistical dis- crimination
where female executives are better equipped at interpreting signals of productivity
from female workers. The evidence suggests substantial costs of under-representation
of women at the top of the corporate hierarchy.
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External appendix
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CitationBibTeX
Flabbi, Luca, Mario Macis, Andrea Moro, and Fabiano Schivardi. "Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance,"
The Economic Journal 129,
pp. 2390–2423, August
2019
@article{flabbi-macis-moro-schivardi-effects-female-ceos-2019,
title = "Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leadership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance",
author = "Flabbi, Luca and Mario Macis and Andrea Moro and Fabiano Schivardi",
year = "2019",
month = " August",
journal = "The Economic Journal",
volume = "129",
pages = "2390–2423",
url = "https://andreamoro.net/assets/papers/femaleceo.pdf"
}