We find that board gender diversity increases the likelihood that firms announce a buy-back but long-term excess returns are signficantly smaller when there is larger female representation on the board. This is consistent with the governance hypothesis: gender diversity makes it more likely that...

We show that investor preferences for diversity have had a significant effect on the initial returns earned by U.S. firms going public with gender diverse boards over the past decade. There is no difference in economic fundamentals, such as profitability, between these firms and firms without...