← Search

Journal of Corporate Finance Vol. 45 2017

Share buybacks and gender diversity

Theodoros Evgeniou; Theo Vermaelen

INSEAD

Abstract

We find that board gender diversity increases the likelihood that firms announce a buyback but long-term excess returns are significantly smaller when there is larger female representation on the board. This is consistent with the governance hypothesis: gender diversity makes it more likely that firms buy back stock to reduce agency costs of free cash flow. But because gender diversity improves the quality of public information disclosure repurchases are less driven by market timing. Moreover, when the quality of monitoring is lower because board members sit on many other boards, long-term excess returns are larger.

DOI
10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2017.06.005
Volume
45
Pages
669-686
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

Cite