Female CEOs and corporate investment efficiency: Evidence from China

This study investigates the effect of female chief executive officers (FCEOs) on investment efficiency. Our study suggests that CEO gender plays a significant role in efficient investment decisions by improving governance and disciplining the management. We document that FCEOs are associated with higher investment efficiency. We also find that FCEOs, when making investment decisions, pay more attention to curbing overinvestment than to underinvestment. Furthermore, we find that FCEOs play no role in improving the investment efficiency of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Our findings suggest that SOEs’ investment decisions are independent of factors that shape investment decisions at non-state-owned enterprises and are more reliant on sociopolitical factors.