The authors evaluate a 2011 Italian law that installed a step-wise increase in gender quota that remains effective for three consecutive board renewals of listed limited liability firms. They link firm-level information on board membership and board election dates with detailed employment and earnings records from the Social Security registers. Exploiting the staggered introduction of the gender quota regulation and variation in board renewal years across firms, the authors evaluate the effect of the board gender composition on measures of gender diversity in top positions over a period of four years. While the reform substantially raised the female membership on corporate boards, results show only moderate and imprecisely estimated spillover effects on the representation of women in top executive or top earnings positions.

作者评估了2011年的意大利法律，该法律规定了逐步增加性别配额的做法，该配额对于连续三个上市有限责任公司董事会续签仍然有效。它们将有关董事会成员资格和董事会选举日期的公司级信息与社会保障登记册中的详细就业和收入记录相关联。利用公司间董事会更新换代期间对性别配额监管和变化的交错引入，作者评估了董事会性别组成对四年来最高职位性别多样性测度的影响。尽管这项改革大大提高了女性在公司董事会中的席位，但结果表明，对高级管理人员或最高收入职位中女性代表的溢出效应只有中等程度的估计和不精确的估计。