We use an event study design to provide evidence demonstrating how the trickle-down effect is influenced by the introduction of regulation on board gender diversity. In 2011, a new regulation was suddenly introduced for firms listed on the United Kingdom’s FTSE 350 index, the regulatory intervention put forward recommendations to increase the representation of women on the boards of FTSE 350 listed firms – the most critical recommendation was a voluntary target of having twenty-five percent of board positions held by women. We argue this change in regulation represents an exogenous shock, we utilize this shock to investigate how regulation influences the trickle-down of women’s representation from board level to senior management. We find evidence of a positive relationship between women on boards and women’s representation in senior management during the pre-regulation era – otherwise referred to as the trickle-down effect. However, the introduction of regulation had the unintended consequence of weakening the relationship between women on boards and women in senior management. Our results suggest that the trickle-down effect varies between different contexts and settings. We discuss the implications for research and practice.

我们使用事件研究设计来提供证据，证明引入董事会性别多样性监管如何影响涓滴效应。2011年，针对英国富时350指数上市公司的新监管突然出台，监管干预提出了增加富时350指数上市公司董事会中女性比例的建议——其中最关键的建议是自愿目标百分之二十五的董事会职位由女性担任。我们认为监管的这种变化代表了一种外源性冲击，我们利用这种冲击来调查监管如何影响女性代表从董事会到高级管理层的渗透。我们发现有证据表明，在监管前时期，董事会中的女性成员与高级管理层中的女性代表之间存在积极关系——也称为“涓滴效应”。然而，监管的引入却产生了意想不到的后果，削弱了董事会中女性与高级管理层中女性之间的关系。我们的结果表明，涓滴效应在不同的背景和环境中会有所不同。我们讨论对研究和实践的影响。