Seminar - It only Takes a Strong Tie: Board Gender Quotas and Networkbased Hiring

It only Takes a Strong Tie: Board Gender Quotas and Networkbased Hiring

Abstract

How do board gender quotas interact with network-based hiring practices and which women benefit from quotas? Using matched firm-directors datasets covering the population of Danish firms and blood- and marriage-based ties as relevant social connections, I show that the introduction of a board gender quota in Denmark in 2012 intensifies network-based hiring, resulting in differential benefits of the law for potential candidates depending on their connections. First, the quota leads firms to double the share of connected directors among female appointments. Second, potential candidates with family connections to incumbent directors and CEOs become three times more likely to be appointed, whereas the probability to be appointed remains the same for unconnected potential candidates. Taken together, the evidence suggests that sticky hiring norms based on networks create search frictions in the recruitment of female directors, even in the presence of board gender quotas.

Bio

Esther is a Post-Doctoral researcher at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, and affiliated with the FAMBUSS center at the University of Copenhagen, where she completed her Ph.D. in economics in September 2021.
She is an applied micro-economist, studying issues in organizational, gender, and institutional economics.