Gender diversity in bank boardrooms and green lending : evidence from euro area credit register data

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Gambacorta, Leonardo and Pancotto, Livia and Reghezza, Alessio and Spaggiari, Martina (2025) Gender diversity in bank boardrooms and green lending : evidence from euro area credit register data. Review of Corporate Finance Studies. ISSN 2046-9136 (https://doi.org/10.1093/rcfs/cfaf026)

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Abstract

We investigate whether female representation on bank boards influences lending to polluting firms. Using confidential credit register data matched with firm-level greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, we isolate credit supply effects. Our findings reveal that banks with more gender-diverse boards lend less to more polluting firms, particularly those with the highest emission levels. These results are robust to endogeneity concerns as well as a range of alternative model specifications and econometric variations. Evidence from an ECB large exposures dataset confirms that this effect holds across different lending contexts. We also find that gender-diverse boards are less likely to initiate new lending relationships with highly polluting firms, suggesting an effect on both the intensive and extensive margins of credit allocation.

ORCID iDs

Gambacorta, Leonardo, Pancotto, Livia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9247-3662, Reghezza, Alessio and Spaggiari, Martina;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)