发表期刊：Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization
发表时间：Available online: 13 May 2022
作者及单位：Zhanhui Chen a, Xiaoran Huang b, Lei Zhang c
a Department of Finance, School of Business and Management, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
b Department of Finance, School of Economics and Wang Yanan Institute for Studies in Economics (WISE), Xiamen University, Fujian, China
c Department of Economics and Finance, College of Business, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
摘要：We study the effects of local gender imbalance on corporate risk-taking. We find that firms in areas with a higher local male–female ratio have higher stock return volatilities, leverage ratios and capital expenditure, and less corporate hedging. Consequently, such firms face higher loan spreads, more collateral requirements and capital expenditure restrictions, and have more covenant violations. We address endogeneity concerns by using two instrumental variables for the local male-female ratio: the local prostate cancer and breast cancer mortality rates. We further show that local gender imbalance captures local residents’ risk preferences, which influence corporate policies via both local investor and employee channels.
关键词：Gender imbalance; Male-female ratio; Risk attitude; Corporate risk-taking
