Motivated by the current discussion to reform the election process of directors to the board, this paper presents a model that shows that when shareholders have direct access to proxy the quality of the board improves. This is so, because more independent directors – regarded as better...

Using a sample of 469 banks from 39 countries between 2008 and 2017 and a generalized difference-in-differences methodology, we show that board gender quota laws lead to increased female board representation. We find an increase in risk taking and systemic risk and worse long-run operating...