Do Women Directors Improve Firm Performance and Risk in India?

Abstract

We examine board diversity in India following a 2013 law requiring all public companies to have at least one female board member. Our results indicate that having women on the board of directors improves firm performance and reduces firm bankruptcy risk. Using data on directors’ backgrounds and social connections, we find that important factors include female directors’ independence, social network size, committee memberships, and graduate education. Our results hold after addressing endogeneity using instrumental variable (IV) and difference-in-differences (DID) approaches.