Board Gender Composition, Dividend Policy and Cost of Debt: The Implications of CEO Duality (original) (raw)

This study examines whether CEO duality affects the association between board gender composition, dividend policy and cost of debt among S&P 500 firms. Our results show that board gender composition positively impacts both a firm's propensity to pay dividends and the level of payouts. However, this positive association is only present in firms without CEO duality. We find no significant association between board gender composition and cost of debt, but when we split the sample into firms with and without CEO duality, we find a positive association for the former and a negative association for the latter. Overall, these results suggest that CEO duality could undermine the role of board gender composition in influencing dividend policy and cost of debt.