Does Board Gender Diversity Affect Renewable Energy Consumption?

Does Board Gender Diversity Affect Renewable Energy Consumption?

Muhammad Atif, Mohammed Hossain, Md. Samsul Alam, Marc Goergen

Series number :

Serial Number: 
617/2019

Date posted :

August 26 2019

Last revised :

September 10 2019
SSRN Share

Keywords

  • Corporate governance • 
  • renewable energy • 
  • Gender Diversity • 
  • Corporate Social Responsibility • 
  • Environmental Protection

This paper examines the effect of board gender diversity on renewable energy consumption. Using a sample of 11,677 firm-year observations from the USA for 2008–2016, we find a positive relationship between board gender diversity and renewable energy consumption.

Moreover, boards require two or more women for women to have a significant impact on renewable energy consumption, consistent with the critical mass theory. Further, we document that the positive impact of female directors on renewable energy consumption stems from female independent directors rather than female executive directors. Furthermore, we find a positive effect of renewable energy consumption and board gender diversity on firm financial performance. Our findings are robust to different identification and estimation techniques.

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Authors

Real name:
Muhammad Atif
Real name:
Mohammed Hossain
Real name:
Md. Samsul Alam