Does a “soft” board gender quotas policy work?
- José Ignacio Conde Ruiz 1
- Manu García 1
- Manuel Yáñez 2
-
1
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
info
- 2 Fundacion de Estudios de Economía Aplicada, Madrid, Spain
ISSN: 2632-7627
Año de publicación: 2020
Volumen: 28
Número: 82
Páginas: 46-68
Tipo: Artículo
Otras publicaciones en: Applied economic analysis
Resumen
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the functioning of a non-sanction “soft” gender quota policy structure (a simple recommendation), using the case of Spain. In the first part of the paper, the authors have reported the dismal improvement regarding the increase of female percentage presence in the companies’ boards of members. Design/methodology/approach – The authors provide a detailed sectorial analysis and a classification of board members by type (executive, proprietary, independent and other external). In the second part, the authors exploit the fact that since 2013, the stock-listed companies are legally obliged to respond to a series of questions on gender diversity issues in their annual reports. Using this requirement, the authors perform an analysis using text processing techniques. The authors find that “self-plagiarism” is common in the responses – i.e. they copy responses from previous years – as well as “plagiarism” – i.e. they copy responses from other companies in previous years. Findings – The insufficient progress in respect to the goals of the Law of Equality of 2007 (enacted by Spanish authorities) and the lack of interest that can be inferred from the companies’ responses included in their annual reports lead the authors to consider the necessity of changing the law on the corporate policies gender quotas in Spain. Originality/value – It is the first study that realizes this type of analysis for Spain.
Referencias bibliográficas
- Ahern, K.R. and Dittmar, A.K. (2012), “The changing of the boards: the impact on firm valuation of female board representation”, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 127 No. 1, pp. 137-197.
- Bertrand, M., Black, S.E., Jensen, S. and Lleras-Muney, A. (2014), “Breaking the glass ceiling? The effect of board quotas on female labor market outcomes in Norway”, NBER Working Paper No. 20256.
- Besley, T., Folke, O., Persson, T. and Rickne, J. (2017), “Gender quotas and the crisis of the mediocre man: theory and evidence from Sweden”, American Economic Review, Vol. 107 No. 8, pp. 2204-2242.
- Conde-Ruiz, J.I. and Hoya, C. (2015), “Gender (in)equality act and large Spanish corporations”, Policy Papers 2015-03, FEDEA.
- Conde-Ruiz, J.I. andMarra de Artinano, I. (2016), “Gender gaps in the Spanish labor market”, Studies on the Spanish Economy eee2016-32, FEDEA.
- Conde-Ruiz, J.I., Ganuza, J.J. and Profeta, P. (2017), “Statistical discrimination and the efficiency of quotas”, Working Papers 2017-04, FEDEA.
- Cuberes, D. and Teignier, M. (2016), “Aggregate effects of gender gaps in the labor market: a quantitative estimate”, Journal of Human Capital, Vol. 10 No. 1.
- Eckbo, B.E., Nygaard, K. and Thorburn, K.S. (2016), “How costly is forced gender-balancing of corporate boards?” European corporate governance institute (ECGI)”, Finance Working Paper No. 463/2016.
- Engelstad, F. and Teigen, M. (2012), “Firms, Boards and Gender Quotas: Comparative Perspectives”, Emerald, Chapter 4.
- European Commission (2011), “Strategy for Equality between Women and Men 2010-2015, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/ legal-content/ES/TXT/?uri=LEGISSUM%3Aem0037
- Ferrari, G., Ferraro, V., Pronzato, C. and Profeta, P. (2016), “Do board gender quotas matter? Selection, performance and the stockmarket effects”,WPDondena, Vol. 92IZA, CESifo.
- Holzer, H.J. and Neumark, D. (2006), “Affirmative action: what do we know?”, Journal of Policy Analysis andManagement, Vol. 26 No. 2, pp. 463-490.
- Huse, M. and Seierstad, C. (2013), “Getting women on to corporate boards: consequences of the Norwegian gender balance law”,The European Financial Review, Vol. 12, pp. 37-39.
- Mateos de Caboa, R., Terjesen, S., Escot, L. and Gimeno, R. (2019), “Do ‘soft law’ board gender quotas work? Evidence from a natural experiment”, European Management Journal, Vol. 37 No. 5.
- Pande, R. and Ford, D. (2011), “Gender quotas and female leadership: a review”, Background Paper for theWorld Development Report on Gender.
- Pletzer, J.L., Nikolova, R., Kedzior, K.K. and Voelpel, S.C. (2015), “Does gender matter? Female representation on corporate boards and firm financial performance – a meta-analysis”, PLoS One, Vol. 10 No. 6.
- Post, C. and Byron, K. (2014), “Women on boards and firm financial performance: a meta-analysis”, Academy ofManagement Journal, Vol. 58 No. 5, pp. 1546-1571.
- Profeta, P., Amidani Alberti, L., Casarico, A., D’Amico, M. and Puccio, A. (2014), Women Directors – The ItalianWay and Beyond, PalgraveMacmillan, Chapter 3.
- Beneito, P., Boscá, P.J.E., Ferri, J. and García, M. (2018), “Women across subfields in economics: relative performance and beliefs”, Working Papers 2018-06, FEDEA.
- Bian, L., Leslie, S. and Cimpian, A. (2017), “Gender stereotypes about intellectual ability emerge early and influence children’s interests”, Science, Vol. 355 No. 6323, pp. 389-391.
- CNMV (2015), “Código unificado de buen gobierno”, available at: www.cnmv.es/DocPortal/Publicaciones/CodigoGov/CUBGrefundido_JUNIO2013.pdf
- CNMV (2018), “Presencia de mujeres en los consejos de administración y en la alta dirección de las sociedades cotizadas”, available at: http://cnmv.es/portal/Publicaciones/ConsejerasDirectivas. aspx
- European Commission (2018), “Report on equality between women and men in the EU”, available at: https:// publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/950dce57-6222-11e8-ab9c-01aa75ed71a1
- Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) (2018), “Gender diversity on boards: a review of global trends”, available at: www.issgovernance.com/library/gender-diversity-boards-review-globaltrends/