CEO GENDER AND FIRM PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The COVID 19 pandemic precipitated an unprecedented deceleration of economic activities and a stock market crash. The unparalleled shock and the altered risk attitudes present a distinctive opportunity to examine whether the well-established concept of the "glass ceiling" is indicative of latent gender differentials in company performance. Utilizing US financial data, the study employs a range of methodologies to examine whether firms led by female CEOs exhibited the same performance as firms led by male CEOs during 2020-2021. Our empirical results confirm previous findings from the finance literature, as we neither find a systematic difference in returns to holding stock in female-led firms, nor a difference in accounting returns between female-led and male-headed firms.