Does Female Leadership Boost Firm Profitability?

Less than a tenth of Finnish firms’ CEOs and chairmen of the board are women; less than a fourth of Finnish firms’ board members are women. An empirical regression analysis of a large firm-level data set suggests that a company led by a women CEO is on average about ten per cent more profitable than a corresponding company led by a man, even after taking into account a number other factors (such as firm size and industry) possibly affecting profitability. The share of woman board members also has a similar impact. The effect of the chairman’s gender is statistically insignificant. These findings are partial correlations; due to data limitations neither causality nor underlying factors are studied

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