Impact of Board Diversity on Dividend Payout: Evidence from Asia Pacific

Abstract

This investigation targets to examine the influence of Board Diversity on Dividend Payout in the Asia Pacific countries. The controversial issue of corporate governance, women's representation of board, and the critical mass of women on the board (CWOB) is three or 30%, the women's demonstration, the board size, and board independence are investigated for their effect on the dividend payout.  This research utilized data from 610 listed companies in the Asia Pacific region over 11 years (2006 to 2016), and 6710 observations were analyzed using the GMM model. Regression outcomes discovered that women’s representation on the board has a significant negative association with dividend payout. CWOB has a positive and significant impact on the dividend payout ratio. Board size and board independence have a relationship with dividend payout. Moreover, country-level analysis showed that women's demonstration on the board negatively affects dividend payout in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan and China. At the same time, the positive relationship was found in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, where corporate governance is weak, and women's presence on the board is lower than in other countries.