We investigate whether board gender diversity affects firms' labor investment efficiency. We find that more gender-diverse boards (higher representation of female directors) lead to less deviations in net hiring from the optimal level of labor investment predicted by economic fundamentals (i.e., more efficient investment in labor). The impact of board gender diversity on labor investment efficiency is robust to using alternative measures of board gender diversity and labor investment efficiency, controlling for unobservable variables, and addressing potential endogeneity concerns using propensity score matching and difference-in-differences approach. Additional subsample analyses suggest that the relation between female directors and labor investment efficiency is stronger in firms with weak monitoring, male CEO, and low managerial ability. Our findings provide support for the role and effectiveness of female directors in disciplining managerial opportunism and strengthening corporate governance.

中文翻译：

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董事会性别多元化与企业劳动力投资效率

我们调查董事会性别多元化是否影响公司的劳动力投资效率。我们发现，更多性别多元化的董事会（女性董事的代表性更高）导致净招聘与经济基本面预测的最佳劳动力投资水平（即更有效的劳动力投资）的偏差较小。董事会性别多元化对劳动力投资效率的影响在使用董事会性别多元化和劳动力投资效率的替代措施、控制不可观察变量以及使用倾向得分匹配和差异中的差异方法解决潜在的内生性问题时是稳健的。额外的子样本分析表明，女性董事与劳动力投资效率之间的关系在监控弱、男性 CEO 和管理能力低的公司中更强。