The association between gender diversity of companies’ executives and corporate tax avoidance

Purpose This paper aims to analyze the possible link between female leadership and corporate tax avoidance. Specifically, this study investigates if companies with women as chief financial officers (CFOs) engage less in tax avoidance practices. Design/methodology/approach This analysis compiles a panel of 355 S&P500 listed companies covering the years 2010–2023. Various panel regressions are conducted to establish the relationship between women CFOs and tax avoidance. Findings The various regression models of this study indicate that the presence of a woman CFO is associated with a reduction in corporate tax avoidance. Concerning the control variables, the associated partial effects are comparable to previous research and provide a further indication of the validity of the results. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that compiles an up-to-date panel of comparable and economically important (S&P500) firms to investigate the link between CFO gender diversity and corporate tax avoidance. Financial firms (that are prone to tax avoidance) are explicitly excluded. Firm-level and alternatively industry-level fixed effects models are used to mitigate endogeneity concerns. Robustness of the results is further probed by considering different sets of control variables and a series of multilevel models.