4/13/22, 1:37 PM The impact of CFO gender on corporate fraud: Evidence from China - ScienceDirect

Pacific-Basin Finance Journal

Volume 63, October 2020, 101404

The impact of CFO gender on corporate fraud: Evidence from

China
Jin-hui Luo a , Chenchen Peng b, Xin Zhang c

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pacfin.2020.101404 Get rights and content

Highlights
• Females occupy almost 30% of CFO positions in Chinese publicly listed firms.

• The large proportion of female CFOs can alleviate the “glass ceiling” concern that
women executives are a select sample.

• Firms with female CFOs are less likely to commit risky and unethical fraud than
their counterparts with male CFOs in China.

• The effect of CFO gender is more pronounced when CFOs have higher levels of
education and/or external job opportunities.

Abstract
This study investigates the impact of CFO gender on financial-reporting-related corporate fraud.
Building on findings in psychology and sociology that women are more risk-averse and ethical
than men, we hypothesize that firms with female CFOs are less likely to commit risky and

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4/13/22, 1:37 PM The impact of CFO gender on corporate fraud: Evidence from China - ScienceDirect

unethical fraud than otherwise similar firms with male CFOs. Our findings, based on a sample of
Chinese listed firms from 2004 to 2014, provide support for our prediction. Further, we find that
the negative association is more pronounced when female CFOs have higher levels of education
and/or external job opportunities. These findings hold true in a battery of robustness checks.

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Keywords
CFO gender; China; Corporate fraud; Ethical behavior; Risk aversion

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