The Empirical Study Of CEO Gender Impact On Firm Performance

With the development of economy, women play increasingly important roles insociety. Some countries in EU mandatorily regulate the proportion of women in theboard of directors by law, aiming at making women enjoy equal decision right andmanagement right. Are women qualified for the company’s senior managementpositions like men? Can women add value for company via enrolling in the seniormanagement? The dispute has attracted extensive from all circles of society.According to the statistical report of Shanghai and Shenzhen A share market, theproportion of female CEOs shows an upward trend year after year, but the institutionof male dominance is still remain the same. From the perspective of the CEO’s gender,this article explores and analyzes whether the competence and performance of femaleand male equally.On the basis of feminist theory, this paper studies the sample of female CEOsemployed by Shanghai and Shenzhen A share listed companies from2006to2011,and investigates the factors that may work when hiring female CEOs, In addition, thereport builds a model of propensity score matching and compares the study sampleswith the paired samples to examine whether the companies show the same level ofperformance after the female CEOs or male CEOs take office. Furthermore, by usingthe return on assets (ROA) of accounting index and event study concerning the stockmarket reaction, buy and hold abnormal return (BHAR) is calculated to measure thecompany performance. Through the theoretical and empirical research, we obtainedsome valuable conclusion. Firstly, The value of those listed company that hire femaleCEOs are significantly improved after the female CEOs are in charge.Secondly, twomatching methods of the propensity score matching are adopted to match the studysamples. Through comparative analysis on the ROA of the matched female CEOs andmale CEOs in the year of taking office, a year after taking office, two years aftertaking office, the BHAR in12months and24months after taking office, shows thatthe performance levels of listed companies with female CEOs are way higher thanthose with the male CEOs. The results of the study highlights that CEO gendercharacteristics significantly correlated with corporate performance and female CEOscan add sustainable value for their companies and their competence and performanceare no less than those of male CEOs. In conclusion, the society should change thetraditional concept of gender, evaluate the value of women objectively. governments and enterprises should attach importance to developing the female human resources tobuild a favorable environment for women’s career development. This study can enrichthe research literature on Executives gender and governance issues. Analysis of theimpact on corporate performance from the unique perspective of CEO gender, has astrong significance.