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Full-Text Articles in Business
Women Directors On Public Company Boards: Does A Critical Mass Affect Leverage?, Cindy K. Harris
Women Directors On Public Company Boards: Does A Critical Mass Affect Leverage?, Cindy K. Harris
Business and Economics Faculty Publications
This study examines the relationship between corporate leverage (the ratio of total debt to total assets) and gender diversity on US public company boards, with particular focus on boards that have at least 25% women directors. Using this critical mass of women eliminates from consideration boards with lesser female representation, whose female directors may be marginalized in their contributions to board functioning and decision-making. I hypothesize that when boards have this minimum threshold of gender diversity, the influence of risk-averse female directors will impact board decisions related to financing, resulting in lower debt ratios when compared to boards with no …
Corporate Governance And Social Welfare In The Common Law World, David A. Skeel Jr.
Corporate Governance And Social Welfare In The Common Law World, David A. Skeel Jr.
All Faculty Scholarship
The newest addition to the spate of recent theories of comparative corporate governance is Corporate Governance in the Common-Law World: The Political Foundations of Shareholder Power, an important new book by Christopher Bruner. Focusing on the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Australia, Bruner argues that the robustness of the country’s social welfare system is the key determinant of the extent to which its corporate governance is shareholder-centered. This explains why corporate governance is so shareholder-oriented in the United Kingdom, which has universal healthcare and generous unemployment benefits, while shareholders’ powers are more attenuated in the United States, with its …