Jobs for the Boys? The Glass Ceiling and the Market for Corporate Control

Abstract

Women and ethnic minority groups hold few boardroom positions. In this paper, we adopt a novel identification strategy to test whether this is caused by a lack of suitable candidates for director positions or, alternatively, by discriminatory barriers that prevent these groups from progressing up the corporate hierarchy. We study the determinants of director appointments following completed mergers and acquisitions. Since directors at the acquisition target will be considered for an appointment at the newly merged firm, our approach allows us to observe the characteristics of successfully appointed target directors jointly with the characteristics of directors who have not been appointed to the board of the merged firm. Our results show empirical evidence consistent with biases in the recruitment of directors. We find that Hispanic directors are less likely to be appointed to the board of the merged firm. Further, women are less likely to be appointed if they previously held a non-executive post and if the representation of women on the acquiring firm’s board is higher. We also find that powerful CEOs are more prone to appoint women to the board. These effects cannot be explained by director and deal characteristics.