Gender-diverse boards and audit fees: What difference does gender quota legislation make?

We investigate the effect of board (audit committee) gender diversity on audit fees in the French context. We also examine whether the relationship between the proportion of female directors and audit fees is moderated by the enactment of the gender quota law in 2011. We use the system GMM estimation approach on a matched sample of French firms listed in the SBF 120 index between 2002 and 2017. Consistent with the supply-side perspective, we contend that female independent directors and female audit committee members, by improving board monitoring effectiveness, affect the auditor's assessment of audit risk, resulting in lower audit fees. Our findings also document that, by breaking the glass ceiling, the effectiveness of the gender quota law lies not in increasing the proportion of female insider directors, but in boosting the appointment of female independent directors and female audit committee members. Using the difference-in-difference approach, our results reveal that female independent directors and female audit committee members are more willing to assert their monitoring skills after the quota law, leading to lower audit fees. Moving beyond tokenism, we show that, after the quota law, the negative impact on non-audit fees is strengthened only for female independent directors.     

Land fragmentation,women empowerment and school dropout of children in Vietnam

This study examines the effect of land fragmentation on school dropout of children in Vietnam. To address the endogeneity issue, the study proposes an instrumental variable – that is land per capita at the commune level. The study also uses another instrumental variable – the percentage of land plot acquisition before 1993 – to check the robustness of the results. The findings are that higher land fragmentation decreases child school dropout. Land fragmentation has significant impacts on school dropout of children aged 10–15, however, it does not have any impact on school dropout of children aged 6–10. We explain these findings through one particular mechanism – that is women empowerment. A higher level of land fragmentation increases women empowerment in deciding to visit family, friends or relatives, the purchase of daily goods, large purchases, their own health, and their children’s health. A variety of robustness checks corroborate these findings.     

Shareholder Empowerment and Board of Directors Effectiveness*

We develop a model to examine implications of empowering shareholders to replace directors. We find that shareholder empowerment functions as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can weaken ineffective boards' incentive to hold on to their position. On the other hand, it can induce both effective and ineffective boards to behave strategically to avoid a potential dismissal. As a result, empowerment does not necessarily increase firm value; in some cases, empowerment exacerbates the agency problem it is intended to address. Giving shareholders the power to set board compensation (have a “say on pay”) can mitigate these problems. However, even when empowerment benefits (harms) the shareholders, firm value may decrease (increase). Finally, we discuss empirical and policy implications of the main findings.     

从社会性别视角看高校知识女性发展权的维护

生存权和发展权是女性的基本人权.发展权的维护是高校知识女性特殊权益维护的重要一环.高校知识女性发展权,既需要社会观念的不断更新,也需要女性自身的努力.     

“溢出效应”还是“挤出效应”？——与父母同住对女性劳动供给的影响

基于中国家庭追踪调查（CFPS）数据,采用面板固定效应模型和工具变量方法,考察与父母同住的家庭结构对女性劳动供给的影响。研究结果表明,同住父母通过协助料理家务与提供隔代照料等方式对女性的劳动供给具有“溢出效应”,而为同住父母提供照料帮助则对女性的劳动供给具有“挤出效应”,两种效应共同作用的结果显示“溢出效应”占优,即与父母同住对女性的劳动供给具有显著的促进作用。进一步的研究结果表明,托幼机构等幼教资源的可获得性会显著降低女性对多代同堂的依赖,但养老院等养老资源的可获得性对多代同堂的家庭结构没有显著影响。     

陈学昭心路历程的个人言说——重读《工作着是美丽的》

长篇小说《工作着是美丽的》，是陈学昭在人生经历重大转折的关键时刻，对自己的过去——个人的生活道路与情感历程，所作的一次认真的回顾与清理。作者以女性个人言说的方式，通过鲜活生动的自我生命历程的细致书写，探寻了女性知识者的人生价值和生命意义，为后世留下了一份珍贵而又可靠的知识分子心灵档案，为小说史留下了一部极具鲜明个性的作品。     

Does having women on boards create value? The impact of societal perceptions and corporate governance in emerging markets

Many governments seek to impose gender equality on boards, but the consequences of doing so are not clear and could harm firms and economies. We shed light on this topic by conceptualizing the relationships as firm‐ and board‐specific and embedded within specific contexts. The theory is developed with reference to emerging markets, and tested on Malaysian firms. We find that female directors create value for some firms and decrease it for others. The impact varies across different performance indicators, firms' ownership, and boards' structure. The findings call for nuanced responses in relation to women's nominations from both governments and firms. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exploring the relationship between strategic performance measurement systems and managers' creativity: the mediating role of psychological empowerment and organisational learning

This study explores whether strategic performance measurement systems (SPMSs) are linked to managers' creativity through two mediating variables—organisational learning and psychological empowerment. Using data collected from 92 senior production managers in Australian manufacturing organisations, the study tests these links using a partial least squares structural model. The results from the structural model indicate that SPMSs are indirectly related to the managers' creativity through organisational learning and psychological empowerment. The study also finds that organisational learning is both directly related to creativity, and indirectly related to psychological empowerment. Further, the potential implications for empirical research are discussed.     

Gender Bias and Credit Access

We extract an exogenous measure of gender bias from survey responses by descendants of U.S. immigrants on questions about the role of women in society. We then use data on around 6,000 small business firms from 17 countries and find that in high‐gender‐bias countries, female entrepreneurs are more likely to opt out of the loan application process and to resort to informal finance, even though banks do not appear to actively discriminate against them. These results are not driven by credit risk differences between female‐ and male‐owned firms or by any idiosyncrasies in the set of countries in our sample.