Gender interactions within the family firm

This paper analyzes whether gender interactions at the top of the corporate hierarchy affect firm performance. Using a large dataset of family-controlled firms in Italy, we find that the joint presence of women in CEO and governance positions significantly improves firm performance. To mitigate endogeneity concerns, we confirm our finding using triple differences around executive transitions complemented with propensity score matching and instrumental variables. Finally, we show that interactions between female CEOs and female directors are less beneficial to corporate performance when the firm is located in areas subject to gender prejudices, and when the firm is large.