Using a large sample of Chinese firms, we examine performance differences between firms with female and male chairs and the channels through which such differences arise. After controlling for the presence of female CEOs and non-chair female directors, we find that chairwoman firms perform...

This paper elaborates whether women bringing their diversity, cross-cultural awareness and transformational leadership skills to corporate boards offer strategic advantages for firms. In the analysis the effect of women in the board room on innovation activity and corporate firm performance as...

We provide the first comprehensive and robust evidence on the relationship between board independence and firm performance in China. We find that independent directors have an overall positive effect on firm operating performance in China. Our findings are robust to a battery of tests, including...

Chinese listed firms recruit independent directors in order to build up connections with people who can provide useful sources and/or protection rather than for their monitoring of top managements. It is found that Chinese listed firms particularly prefer two types of Guanxi provided by...

This paper investigates how institutional environment like property rights protection influences the size and composition of corporate boards, and further, how board structure impacts firm performance in China. Using a World Bank survey of 2,400 public and private firms across 18 Chinese cities,...

This paper investigates two successive reforms in China -- 2001 board independence and 2005 share structure -- to study their joint effects on corporate performance as ownership concentration declines. We find that both independent directors and ownership concentration ratios are individually...

Using manually collected data on Chinese A-share listed companies, we construct the interlocking directorate network to analyze its impact on firm performance and to investigate its economic mechanisms therein. We find that the size and closeness of the interlocking directorate network are...

This paper identifies a positive causal effect of board gender diversity on firm performance by utilizing unique historical events in China. Specifically, the Famine resulted in an evident gender gap in the supply of qualified directors of certain cohorts. Since the shocks differ in both gender...

My study examines how institutional features of transition economies, i.e., goverment ownership, legal investor protection, and government regulation distort the choice of directors, and the firm value impact of independent director and political-connected director in China. We find that SOEs...

Using a sample of 50 largest Chinese banks during the period of 2003-2010, we explore a comprehensive set of board characteristics (size, composition and functioning of the board) and analyze their impacts on bank performance and bank asset quality in China. We find that the number of board...