Resumen de Gender diversity in the boards and the pricing of publicly traded corporate debt: evidence from Japan

Takanori Tanaka

• This article explores the impact of gender-diverse boards on the cost of publicly traded corporate debt. Using a sample of Japanese corporate bond issues, we find that firms with female outside directors enjoy lower cost of corporate public debt after controlling for corporate governance, bond and firm characteristics. In addition, the results using matching methods also show that the cost of corporate public debt is lower for firms with female outside directors. Overall, these findings indicate the importance of gender-diverse boards in corporate bond markets.