Risk Aversion and Social Preferences: The Effects of CEO Gender and Conservatism on Lending Decisions
基于高层梯队理论，研究信用合作社CEO的性别和政治意识形态如何影响贷款决策，发现女性CEO的风险规避程度取决于其政治意识形态，而保守派CEO更少向弱势群体放贷。
In this study, I draw on upper echelons theory to empirically examine whether a credit union CEO’s gender and political ideology influence their firm’s lending decisions. Interestingly, credit unions led by female CEOs are not necessarily more risk averse than a male CEO, as gender’s effect on risk aversion is shown to be conditional on one’s political ideology. This reflects the similar ways the two characteristics (gender and conservatism) relate to one’s risk preferences. However, these characteristics are not interchangeable, as CEOs’ social preferences differ along these dimensions. Credit unions led by conservative CEOs are shown to place less emphasis on lending to historically disadvantaged applicants than their liberal counterparts, however, there is little difference observed based on a CEO’s gender. Together, these findings suggest that a CEO’s revealed preferences based on their ideology are important to understanding variation in lenders’ decision-making.