We critically revisit and expand previous studies on the likely valuation effect of Norway's pioneering board gender-quota law. Most important, Ahern and Dittmar (2012) report a significantly negative average abnormal stock return, which they conclude is evidence of a large shareholder-borne...

Mandated board gender-balancing is a social-policy instrument, which in principle is unrelated to concerns about firms' economic performance. Nonetheless, imposing such a policy may have unintended consequences (positive or negative) for firm value, which is important for all of the firm's...