Gender Differences in Financial Reporting Decision Making: Evidence from Accounting Conservatism

Contemporary Accounting Research - Tập 32 Số 3 - Trang 1285-1318 - 2015
Bill B. Francis1, Iftekhar Hasan2, Jong Chool Park3, Qiang Wu1
1Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
2Fordham University and Bank of Finland
3Old Dominion University

Tóm tắt

AbstractThis paper investigates the effect of CFO gender on corporate financial reporting decision making. Focusing on firms that experience changes of CFO from male to female, the paper compares the firms' degree of accounting conservatism between pre‐ and post‐transition periods. We find that female CFOs are more conservative in their financial reporting. In addition, we find that the relation between CFO gender and conservatism varies with the level of various firm risks, including litigation risk, default risk, systematic risk, and CFO‐specific risk such as job security risk. We further find that the risk aversion of female CFOs is associated with less equity‐based compensation, lower firm risk, a higher tangibility level, and a lower dividend payout level. Overall, the study provides strong support for the notion that female CFOs are more risk averse than male CFOs, which leads female CFOs to adopt more conservative financial reporting policies.

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