Prague Economic Papers 2019, 28(3):363-377 | DOI: 10.18267/j.pep.695

Female Leadership and Firm Performance

Arlette Beltran
Arlette Beltran, Academic Department of Economics,Universidad del Pacífico, Lima, Peru

This study explores whether companies´ experience benefits when the firm's CEO and owner are both women. It employs data from the 2009-2014 World Bank Enterprise Surveys (WBES) to measure firms' performance through growth in sales and productivity. Potential endogeneity was corrected by using the UN Gender Development Index and the average fertility rate as they comply with the exclusion restrictions. The paper uses the Control Function method with a Probit first stage estimation and an OLS main equation. The findings suggest that a female owner strengthens the female CEO's business skills and leads to better firm performance than when the CEO is a woman and the owner is a man.

Keywords: firm performance, gender, statistical discrimination, cross-country data
JEL classification: J16, L25, M51, O10

Accepted: April 23, 2018; Published: July 10, 2019  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago Chicago Notes IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Beltran, A. (2019). Female Leadership and Firm Performance. Prague Economic Papers, 28(3), 363-377. doi: 10.18267/j.pep.695
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. Ahern, K., Dittmar, A. (2012). The Changing of the Boards: The Impact on Firm Valuation of Mandated Female Board Representation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127(1), 137-197, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1364470 Go to original source...
    2. Angrist, J., Evans, W. (1998). Children and Their Parents' Labor Supply: Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Family Size. The American Economic Review, 88(3), 450-477, https://doi.org/10.3386/w5778 Go to original source...
    3. Bardasi, E., Sabarwal, S., Terrell, K. (2011). How Do Female Entrepreneurs Perform ? Evidence from Three Developing Regions. Small Business Economics, 37(4), 417-441, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-011-9374-z Go to original source...
    4. Blau, P. (1977). Inequality and Heterogeneity: A Primitive Theory of Social Structure. Nueva York: The Free Press. ISBN 978-0029036600.
    5. Campbell, K., Mínguez-Vera, A. (2008). Gender Diversity in the Boardroom and Firm Financial Performance. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(3), 435-451, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9630-y Go to original source...
    6. Cliff, J. (1998). Does One Size Fit All? Exploring the Relationship between Attitudes Towards Growth, Gender, and Business Size. Journal of Business Venturing, 13(6), 523-542, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0883-9026(97)00071-2 Go to original source...
    7. Cruces, C., Galiani, S. (2007). Fertility and Female Labor Supply in Latin America: New Causal Evidence. Labour Economics, 14(3), 565-573, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2005.10.006 Go to original source...
    8. Davis, S., Haltiwanger, J. (1992). Gross Job Creation and Destruction, and Employment Reallocation. Quearterly Journal of Economics, 104(4), 671-698, https://doi.org/10.2307/2118365 Go to original source...
    9. Dezsõ, C., Ross, D. (2008). 'Girl Power': Female Participation in Top Management and Firm Performance. University of Maryland and Columbia Business School.
    10. Dobbs, R., Koller, T. (2005). Measuring Long-term Performance, in Koller, T., Goedhart, M., Wessels, D., eds., Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of the Company. New Jersey: John Wiley and sons.
    11. Fernandez-Baca, J. (2011). Organización Industrial, segunda edición. Lima: Universidad del Pacífico.
    12. Fisman, R., Svensson, J. (2007). Are Corruption and Taxation Really Harmful to Growth? Firm Level Evidence. Journal of Development Economics, 83(1), 63-75, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2005.09.009 Go to original source...
    13. Flabbi, L., Macis, M., Moro, A., Schivardi, F. (2014). Do Female Executives Make a Difference? The Impact of Female Leardership on Gender Gaps and Firm Performance. CEPR. Discussion Paper No. DP10228, https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.1.4334.7925 Go to original source...
    14. Kepler, E., Shane, S. (2007). Are Male and Female Entrepreneurs Really that Different? U.S. Small Business Administration.
    15. Morris, M., Miyasaki, N., Watters, C., Coombes, S. (2006). The Dilemma of Growth: Understanding Venture Size Choices of Women Entrepreneurs. Journal of Small Business Management, (44)2, 221-244, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-627X.2006.00165.x Go to original source...
    16. Navarro, A. I., Gallo, A. (2014). The Female CEO in Developing Countries' Firms, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2405558 Go to original source...
    17. OIT (2015). La mujer en la gestión. Cobrando Impulso. Ginebra: OIT. (ILO (2015). Women in Business and Management. Gaining momentum in Latin America and the Caribbean. Ginebra: ILO)
    18. Phelps, E. (1972). The Statistical Theory of Racism and Sexism. The American Economic Review, 62(4), 659-661.
    19. Ponczek, V., Souza, A. (2012). New Evidence of the Causal Effect of Family Size on Child Quality in a Developing Country. The Journal of human resources, 47(1), 64-106, https://doi.org/10.1353/jhr.2012.0006 Go to original source...
    20. Shanon, C. (1948). A Mathematical Theory of Communication. Bell System Technnical Journal, 27(4), 623-656, https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb00917.x Go to original source...
    21. Wooldridge, J. (2002). Econometric Analysis of Cross Sectiion and Panel Data. Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 9780262232197.
    22. Wooldridge, J. (2015). Control Function Methods in Applied Econometrics. The Journal of Human Resources, 50(2), 420-445, https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.50.2.420 Go to original source...
    23. World Bank (2014). Enterprise Surveys: Indicator Descriptions. Washington: World Bank.

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content