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Investors' Response to Corporate Gender Inclusivity: International evidence
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Friday 18 October 2024
03:00 PM - 04:00 PM
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Biography
Dr Angelos Synapis is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Centre for Financial and Corporate Integrity (CFCI) at Coventry University. He holds a PhD in Accounting and Finance from the University of Glasgow.
His main research interests primarily focus on accounting and corporate finance. Specifically, he is interested in ESG and responsible finance, financial regulations, financial performance, insider trading, market-based accounting, and M&As.
His research has been published in highly-ranked national and international journals, including the British Accounting Review and the Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting. His work has been funded from several funding bodies such as the British Academy and the Economics and Social Research Council (ESRC).
His research has attracted media attention with features in the CLS Blue Sky Blog of Columbia Law School and the FinReg Blog of Duke Financial Economics Center. Furthermore, his work has been featured on the programs of national and international conferences such as the British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA) and the Financial Management Association (FMA).
Abstract
Do markets value gender inclusivity? Using data from 42 countries around the world, we find that firms’ inclusion in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index (BGEI) has a significant and positive market reaction, while the effect is stronger for companies that have a higher gender inclusivity score. We further show that the main channels for this effect are the level of inclusivity disclosures, the gender pay parity, the percentage of female leadership, and the anti-sexual harassment policies. Our findings also show that the market reaction is higher in weak institutional quality environments and that firms that operate across different cultures with varying societal beliefs, norms and expectations, react differently to the inclusion in the BGEI. Our results have policy implications and suggest that a firm’s commitment to gender inclusivity exerts a certification effect which is welcomed by the markets that suffer from institutional voids.
