The impact of corporate board quotas on gender equality. Evaluation of an italian policy in the post-pandemic scenario

Details

Supervisors

Parienté, William ; Frattini, Tommaso

Faculty

Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales, politiques et de communication

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences économiques, orientation générale, à finalité spécialisée

Abstract

The 5th of March 2020, the European Commission gave its green light to the Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, which is a plan to make significant progress by 2025 towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. This thesis project aims at analysing the current gender discrimination status among the Italian enterprises, by evaluating the Gender Quota Law 160/2019 mandating the introduction of a 40% gender quota for both genders in the board of directors of the listed or state-owned firms. Using a Propensity Score Matching and a Difference in Difference approach, the project will study the compliance of the treatment group with the Law and therefore the changes in the gender composition of the boards of directors. Furthermore, based on available data on women characteristics and assumptions on their preferences, I will try to explain the impact of gender quotas on the financial efficiency of the enterprises and their proficiency in certain aspects, such as the number of employees and the total production value.