This research aims to investigate the relationship between the presence of females in the board of directors (BOD) and agency cost as well as firm performance with the mediating role of agency costs. We employ STATA to test feasible general least squares and generalized method of moments (GMM) on Vietnamese listed firms' data over 2015–2019. The results demonstrate that the presence of female directors is positively related to firm performance. The percentage of females has a positive relationship with agency cost, which has a negative impact on firm performance. The mediating role of the agency cost variable only reduces the positive impact of gender diversity in the BOD on firm performance, but this relationship is not reversed. The main contribution is the examination of the moderating role of state ownership and the mediating role of agency costs. Our study provides evidence about women's roles in different legal contexts, which might foster the formation of future legal frameworks.

中文翻译：

---

代理成本：女性在职员工与公司绩效之间的缺失环节

本研究旨在调查女性在董事会 (BOD) 中的存在与代理成本之间的关系，以及公司绩效与代理成本的中介作用之间的关系。我们使用 STATA 对越南上市公司 2015-2019 年的数据测试可行的一般最小二乘法和广义矩量法 (GMM)。结果表明，女性董事的存在与公司绩效呈正相关。女性比例与代理成本呈正相关，对企业绩效产生负面影响。代理成本变量的中介作用只是降低了董事会性别多元化对公司绩效的积极影响，但这种关系并未逆转。主要贡献是考察了国家所有制的调节作用和代理成本的中介作用。我们的研究提供了有关女性在不同法律环境中的角色的证据，这可能会促进未来法律框架的形成。