Around the world, policy makers are mandating gender quotas for boards of publicly-traded firms. Since the benefits and costs of these quotas accrue to shareholders, it is important to see how they react to the appointment of female directors. Using data on mandatory announcements of new...

International studies suggest that directors with political connections provide significant benefits to shareholders. Yet, whether this is the case in the political and business environment in Australia is unknown. In this study, we examine the prevalence of former politicians as non-executive...

While prior studies document the benefits of political connections in emerging markets, their value in developed markets is less certain. In this study, we examine the types of firms that have directors with political and government connections on their boards and the value of these connections...

Boards of directors have received limited guidance about the types and diversity of professional expertise expected on corporate boards. This is because little is actually known about the expertise that exists on corporate boards. In this study, we categorize directors by 11 types of...