Gender Diversity on Boards and Firm Financial Performance: A study of Norwegian firms

Abstract

We examine the effect of gender diversity on boards on firm financial performance. Our data are Norwegian AS and ASA firms from 2002 to 2020. As previous literature on this topic is ambiguous, we start by presenting economic reasons for why findings might vary. By employing pooled cross-sectional and fixed effect regressions, we find that gender diversity is positively related to ROA and profit margin. This is consistent for both the largest and smallest firms in our sample. Further, we find a negative relationship for the firm exposed to the introduction of the gender balance law. Followed by these results, we conclude that the relationship is not as robust and apparent as other papers indicate.