Board gender diversity, bank risk and performance : evidence from Australia

Abstract

In recent years, regulators, and investors across the world have shown increasing interest in the promotion of diversity in corporate boards of directors. This thesis investigates the impact of board gender diversity on bank outcomes in Australia for the period of 2004 to 2019. A large number of bank performance indicators are assessed in consideration of the different aspects of bank outcome including a variety of bank risks and bank profitability and valuation. Furthermore, the time dimension of board gender diversity is explored by analysing the interacting effect of board gender diversity and extended director tenure. The results support a complex and context-dependent effect of board gender diversity. The thesis contributes significantly to the literature of bank board governance and has important implications for banking regulators and policy makers. The analyses in the thesis are based on a compiled set of Australian data extracted from four databases, namely BoardEx, FitchConnect, Eikon and Bloomberg. The research in this thesis provides important contributions. First, this thesis contributes to the board governance literature on the effect of board gender diversity on various types of risks faced by the Australian banks. All the risks investigated in this thesis are crucial to bank survival and many are studied in relation to board gender diversity for the first time in the literature. Second, this thesis enhances the literature studying the relationship between board gender diversity and bank performance. A comprehensive analysis is dedicated to study the impact of board gender diversity on bank performance and risk-adjusted performance in Australia, filling in the knowledge gap in these areas. Third, the introduction of a new model structure provides novel insights into the context-dependent relationship between board gender diversity and bank outcomes, advancing the extant literature on board gender diversity. Fourth, this thesis enriches the literature on board structure, board gender diversity and director tenure by studying the interaction between board gender diversity and extended director tenure in relation to their joint effect on bank outcomes.

Date of Award	2022
Original language	English