Sense and Sensibility - How Women Help Corporations Make More Informed Decisions: A research study about the gender effect on corporate acquisitions in Sweden during the period 1999-2014

Sammanfattning: The gender effect on corporate decision-making and on financial behaviour has been thoroughly studied, and gender equality is today on top of many corporate agendas. However, few studies have focused on the gender effect on corporate acquisitions, even though this is one of the most significant economic events a company can go through. As the first study in the Nordic region, we study the effect of female risk-aversion and male overconfidence on corporate acquisitiveness using acquisition bids by the NASDAQ OMX Stockholm companies during the time period 1999- 2014. We find that gender has a significant effect both on the number of bid initiations and the size of the bid premium offered. Female CEOs and chairmen have significant negative effects on the number of bid initiations, in conclusion with our hypotheses. Interestingly, however, we find conflicting evidence regarding the fraction of female directors, suggesting a negative association with the size of the bid premia but a positive association with the number of bid initiations.