Board gender diversity, information asymmetry, and investment efficiency : do female voices make a difference?

This paper investigates how board gender diversity (BGD) impacts information asymmetry (IA) and investment efficiency (IE), in addition to the moderating role of board gender diversity on the nexus between information asymmetry and investment efficiency in Egypt, motivated by the unclear lens and mixed evidence in the previous literature within this area, especially in developing countries. Thus, the paper followed a deductive research approach for 84 listed firms on the Egyptian Exchange from 2014 to 2023. The findings present new evidence that differs from the common findings in the literature, such as a U-shaped non-linear impact that was found regarding the impact of BGD on both IA (20.71% turning point) and IE (20.38% turning point). However, the IA shows a U-shaped non-linear effect on IE, and the incorporation of BGD as a moderator cause shifting from a (U) shape curve to an inverted (U) shape curve. Our findings from Egypt can motivate future academic research to re-examine the role of BGD from other perspectives in other countries and circumstances. In addition, this paper gives professional authorities and regulators insights into the optimal level of BGD and its critical role in corporate governance and performance, not just the benefits of increasing the diversity ratio, and can also help promote gender equality in corporate management, which can have social and economic benefits.