演讲题目：Could“Lehman Sisters”reduce bank risk taking? Cross-country evidence

演讲者：吴琼兵 副教授

演讲时间：2019年10月11日（周五）上午10：00一11：30

演讲地点: 嘉庚二203

主持人：游家兴 教授

参加者：对会计、财务研究有兴趣的师生

ABSTRACT

Since the global financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, board gender diversity has attracted growing attention among academia and policy makers. The “Lehman Sisters” hypothesis argues for more women representation on bank director board based on the stereotyped gender gap in risk preference, which has been widely supported by empirical studies on nonfinancial firms. However, empirical research on board gender diversity and bank risk-taking is scarce and mostly confined to individual developed markets with inconclusive findings. This research is the first empirical study to examine the impact of board gender diversity on bank risk-taking using a large sample of 492 commercial banks across 18 developed and 21 developing countries over the period 2007-2016. We find a significantly negative impact of board gender diversity on bank risk taking, providing new international empirical evidence in support of the Lehman Sisters hypothesis; however, this impact is significantly weakened in countries with more hostile perception toward working women. Our findings help to reconcile the existing contradictory empirical evidence by highlighting the importance of cultural effect. We also confirm the critical threshold of three female directors to play a significant role in reducing bank risk taking, providing new international evidence in support of the critical mass theory from banking sector. Our findings have important implications for policy makers and bank risk management.

个人简介：吴琼兵，银行金融学博士，澳大利亚西悉尼大学商学院副教授，在Journal of Banking and Finance等国际优秀刊物发表多篇论文。