Women’s empowerment conditions, institutions and firm performance in the MENA region
研究利用11个中东和北非国家的企业面板数据，发现促进女性赋权的制度条件能显著提升企业绩效，且该效应通过董事会多样性实现，对市场绩效的影响强于会计绩效。
Women in corporate leadership roles are gaining recognition in business strategy decision-making. However, the impact of women’s business leadership roles in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has only recently gained attention due to the considerable gender equality reforms. This study explores the extent to which gender-empowerment institutions affect the performance of firms operating in the different countries of the MENA region. Using firm-level panel data, the study deploys a country-level measure of the women’s empowerment conditions in eleven MENA countries and explores its impact on both the market-driven and accounting-driven measures of corporate performance. The results show that the institutional conditions promoting gender empowerment are a significant and positive predictor of corporate performance. The effect materialises directly and indirectly through board diversity. It is weaker with respect to the accounting-driven measures of performance and stronger with respect to the market-driven measures of performance. Institutions and culture mitigate the effect. Policymakers and private agents should coordinate their efforts to empower women’s position in the whole MENA region with tangible benefits on corporate performance.