Playing the Boys Game: Golf Buddies and Board Diversity
Sumit Agarwal, Wenlan Qian, David M. Reeb, Tien Foo Sing
American Economic Review · 2016 · Volume 106 · Issue 5
Abstract
We study the participation of women in golf, a predominately male social activity, and its influence on their likelihood of serving on a board of directors. Exploiting a novel dataset of all golfers in Singapore, we find that woman golfers enjoy a 54% higher likelihood of serving on a board relative to male golfers. A woman's probability of serving on the board in a large firm or in a predominately male industry increases by 117% to 125% when she plays golf. Joining the boy's informal network appears to facilitate women's entrance or success in the executive labor market.
Keywords
Mergers, Acquisitions, Restructuring, Voting, Proxy Contests, Corporate Governance, Economics of Gender, Non-labor Discrimination, Personnel Management, Executives, Executive Compensation, Personnel Economics: Firm Employment Decisions, Promotions
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