How do female CEOs affect the corporate capital structure in Norwegian private firms
Master thesis
Permanent lenke
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2688412Utgivelsesdato
2020Metadata
Vis full innførselSamlinger
- Master of Science [1684]
Sammendrag
The effect of managerial characteristics on corporate financing policies has gained
a growing attention during the last years. Thus, this thesis aims at investigating how
the gender of the CEO affects the corporate capital structure in Norwegian private
firms. In short, within a behavioural perspective, males and females are perceived
to be different from each other. These differences are presumed to be reflected in
their financing behaviour and therefore assumed to influence decisions regarding
the corporate capital structure. Using panel data of Norwegian private firms over
the time period 2001-2017 obtained from the Centre of Corporate Governance
Research (CCGR) database, this thesis examines how female CEOs shapes the
firm´s financing decisions in terms of debt levels, debt maturity and cost of
borrowing. By categorising the sample by firm size, we find that female CEOs of
smaller Norwegian private firms adopt a capital structure with higher amounts of
leverage, with a shorter maturity, at a lower cost. These findings are proven to be
robust for several model specifications. Our results provide evidence of female- and
male CEOs differing in their financing choices, hence adopting capital structures
with different amounts of leverage, different maturities and at a different cost.
However, compared to previous studies of listed US companies, our study suggests
that considering the geographical patterns in gender equality and diversity might
prove important when studying the effect of female CEOs in future research.
Beskrivelse
Masteroppgave(MSc) in Master of Science in Business, Accounting and Business Control - Handelshøyskolen BI, 2020