Earnings-quality regression estimates (EQ1, EQ2, EQ3 and EQ4)

The table shows the regression estimates with GMM in difference with fixed effects at the firm and industry levels. EQ1, EQ2, EQ3 and EQ4 are used as the dependent variable. GD1 to GD3 are the alternative gender-diversity metrics for our first independent variable. BRem1 is the measure of remuneration of the board of directors, related to the hypotheses regarding the directors’ compensation. BOwn is the percentage of equity capital owned by the board of directors, BIndep is the percentage of independent board members, BSize is the number of directors on the board of directors and BExec is the percentage of executive directors. Size measures firm size as the logarithm of total assets. Risk measures the default risk based on Altman’s (1968) Z-score. ROA measures the return on assets, computed as net income over total assets. Lev measures the leverage ratio, defined as the sum of short- and long-term debt over total assets. GO is a metric of growth opportunities, defined as total assets less total common equity plus the company’s market capitalization, all scaled by total assets. Finally, factor variables from the Cluster-Focused Principal Component Factoring technique (Governance1, Governance2 and Governance3) that capture key attributes of the Unified Good Governance Code were also included. The table also shows the extrema point (or threshold) for each regression using the BRem1 measure, which is tested with Lind and Mehlum’s (2010) contrast.

z-statistics in parentheses. Robust standard errors are reported.

***, ** and * simply significance at 1, 5 and 10%, respectively.

Extremum outside interval, which leads to trivial failure to reject null hypothesis of monotone or U-shaped relationship