Gender diversity in corporate boards and continuous disclosure: Evidence from Australia

Abstract

We investigate whether gender-diverse boards contribute to capital market efficiency through their role in corporate disclosure. Using Australia’s continuous disclosure regime, we provide evidence that female directors on the board improve the frequency and volume of all types of continuous disclosure. Further analyses show that the relationship between gender-diversity and continuous disclosure is non-linear. Moreover, it requires more than one female director to have any significant effect on continuous disclosure, which is consistent with the critical mass theory. The study uses lagged independent variables and the Two-Stage-Least Squares (2SLS) approach to minimise endogeneity concerns. The results are robust to alternative variable definitions. Moreover, the Generalised Methods of Moments (GMM) and difference-in-difference techniques are used.