Purpose: This paper examines if gender diversity on corporate boards promotes corporate social performance across industries and across countries. Methodology: Fixed-effect panel models are estimated using European-wide data from 2002 through 2013. Instrumental variable estimation and propensity score matching are also employed to control for potential endogeneity. Findings: Board gender diversity improves environmental and social performance, and consequently the corporate social performance. Although the positive effect of gender diversity is prevalent across industries, the effect is more pronounced for firms in emerging markets. Regulatory implications: The findings suggest that gender law that fosters gender diversity can promote corporate social performance in firms and the benefit can be enjoyed with just an introduction of one female director to the board. Promotion of gender diversity in Europe is most beneficial in emerging markets. Originality: The results provide new insights to the literature as we find that a critical mass of female directors on boards is not required to promote corporate social performance. The research also highlights that board gender diversity enhances corporate social performance irrespective of the industry and the effect on corporate social performance is more pronounced in emerging markets where regulations regarding CSR are not so clear-cut.

Available online xxxx JEL classification: G34 J16 M10 M41 a b s t r a c tWe examine the effect board gender diversity has on earnings management in European countries. The findings reveal that a gender diverse board mitigates earnings management in countries where gender equality is high. This provides an explanation to the inconclusive findings in the literature.

Purpose -The aim of the study is to investigate the relative significance of the determinants of disaggregated capital flows (foreign direct investment and portfolio flows) to five developing countries, across different time horizons. Design/methodology/approach -An empirically tractable structural VAR model of the determinants of capital flows is developed, and variance decomposition and impulse response analyses are used to investigate the temporal dynamic effects of shocks to push and pull factors on foreign direct investment and portfolio flows. Findings -Estimation of the model using quarterly data for the period 1976-2001 provides evidence supporting the hypothesis that shocks to real variables of economic activity such as foreign output and domestic productivity are the most important forces explaining the variations in capital flows to developing countries. Research limitations/implications -These findings highlight the concomitant need for policy makers in developing countries to design domestic policy that accounts for both external and internal shocks to real variables of economic activity. Originality/value -Previous empirical studies on the determinants of capital flows to developing countries have mostly examined the capital flow variable in aggregate, and have largely overlooked the possibility that the relative significance of estimated coefficients of such determinants may vary across time horizons.

This article investigates the relationship between tourism specialization and economic growth while accounting for the absorptive capacity of host (tourism destination) countries, defined in terms of financial system development. We use the system generalized methods-of-moments (SYS-GMM) estimation methodology to investigate this relationship for 129 countries over the period 1995-2011. The results support the hypothesis that the positive effect of tourism specialization on growth is contingent on the level of economic development as well as the financial system absorptive capacity of recipient economies. Consistent with the law of diminishing returns, we also find that for countries with a developed financial system, at exponential levels of tourism specialization, its effect on growth turns negative. Significant policy implications flow from these findings.

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