We investigate overboarded (or busy) directors, documenting differences by gender in their effects on environmental and social scores, with female directors having negative impacts. The findings suggest that this negative effect is associated with tokenism practices of firms, as well as specialization in business-related expertise and financial oversight, rather than a broader range of qualifications of busy female directors. We use California’s quota introduction as a shock to establish the causal relation of gender quota with directors’ busyness, providing evidence that it is a plausible reason for the increase in overboarded female directors in recent years.
Presented at the 36th Australasian Finance and Banking Conference, the International Corporate Governance Society Conference (ICGS23), the Women and Finance Université Paris 1 Sorbonne, the Research Symposium in Finance and Economics 2023, the FMCG23 conference, the 16th Financial Risks International Forum, French Inter Business School Workshop in Finance
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4260457
(solo authored paper)
Annalisa Tonetto 