Your gender identity is who you are: Female chief executive officers and corporate debt structure

Huang, Yuxuan; Zhu, Qi; Yan, Cheng; Zeng, Yeqin

Abstract

By leveraging sample data from S&P 1500 companies for the 1993–2021 period, we execute an empirical examination of the effects of chief executive officer (CEO) gender on a company’s debt structure. We find that after endogeneity is controlled, companies whose CEOs are women issue less debt compared with those whose CEOs are men. We posit that CEOs who are women are more risk averse compared with CEOs who are men; this may drive the negative relationship of female CEO gender with firm leverage. Furthermore, the influence exerted by CEO gender is greater when a company’s CEO is younger, the level of market competition is higher, and the risk of litigation is higher. In terms of debt structure, firms managed by female CEOs prefer to maintain positive debt capacity and have longer debt maturity periods. Finally, our results reveal that CEO gender exerts a stronger influence on debt structure than does CFO gender. Taken together, our evidence suggests gender differences exist in decision-making on corporate debt borrowing.

Citation

Huang, Y., Zhu, Q., Yan, C., & Zeng, Y. (2023). Your gender identity is who you are: Female chief executive officers and corporate debt structure. International Journal of Finance and Economics, https://doi.org/10.1002/ijfe.2923

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 18, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Dec 20, 2023
• Publication Date: Dec 20, 2023
• Deposit Date: Nov 20, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 4, 2024
• Journal: International Journal of Finance and Economics
• Print ISSN: 1076-9307
• Electronic ISSN: 1099-1158
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ijfe.2923
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1944197