This paper examines whether banks with female Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and chairpersons of the board are associated with better lending performance and lower default risk when faced with severe real estate price shocks. Using a large panel of U.S. commercial banks, we document that...

This paper examines whether bank capital ratios and default risk are associated with the gender of the bank's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairperson of the board. Given the documented gender-based differences in conservatism and risk tolerance, we postulate that female CEOs and board...