"Is Gender Diversity Profitable? Evidence from a Global Survey"

August 4, 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Mānoa Campus, East-West Center Research Program, Burns Hall, Room 3012 Add to Calendar

Is Gender Diversity Profitable? Evidence from a Global Survey


Marcus Noland

Non-Resident Senior Fellow, East-West Center

Executive Vice President and Director of Studies, Peterson Institute for International Economics

Thursday, August 4, 2016 | 12:00 noon to 1:00pm
John A. Burns Hall, Room 3012 (3rd floor)

Analysis of a global survey of 21,980 firms from 91 countries suggests that the presence of women in corporate leadership positions may improve firm performance. This correlation could reflect either the payoff to nondiscrimination or the fact that women increase a firm’s skill diversity. Women’s presence in corporate leadership is positively correlated with firm characteristics such as size as well as national characteristics such as girls’ math scores, the absence of discriminatory attitudes toward female executives, and the availability of paternal leave. The results find no impact of board gender quotas on firm performance, but they suggest that the payoffs of policies that facilitate women rising through the corporate ranks more broadly could be significant. Some Asia-specific results and counterfactuals are presented.


Marcus Noland, is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the East-West Center and the Executive Vice President and Director of Studies at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He worked for the Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration, and has held research or teaching positions at Yale University, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Southern California, Tokyo University, the Japanese National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, the University of Ghana, and the Korea Development Institute..


Event Sponsor
East-West Center, Research Program, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Laura Moriyama, (808) 944-7444, Laura.Moriyama@eastwestcenter.org

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