Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Do Board Diversity And Gender Quotas Affect Firm Value? Evidence From California Assembly Bill No. 979, Emily Kelleen Blake, Sepideh Raei, Katarzyna A. Bilicka, Todd Griffith

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

We analyze the stock market reaction and returns for California-headquartered companies following the announcement of AB 979 (California Assembly Bill 979) that was signed into effect on September 30th, 2020. AB 979 requires public firms headquartered in California to meet board gender and diversity quotas by December 31st, 2021. Cumulative abnormal returns in a [-1, +1] event window average a 0.98% abnormal return as benchmarked against all publicly traded firms and a 1.29% abnormal return when benchmarked against our control group (of firms headquartered outside of California). California headquartered firms with exclusively male boards had a larger cumulative abnormal return …