Variables

Code

Measurement

Reference

CEO Duality

CEOD

Coded “1” if CEO also holds the position of board chairman or “0” if both positions are separated

[45] [46]

Board Size

BSIZE

the number of members in the board as a measure of board size

[45] [20]

Board Meetings

BMEET

Logarithm is taken after adding 1 to the count of meetings.

[46] [47]

Independence board members

BINDEP

Proportion of non-executive directors over the total number of directors

[17] [36]

Gender Diversity

Gendiv

the ratio of number of women to the total

number of board members (Female)

[45] [48]

Dependent Variables

Return-on-Assets

ROA

Measured as percentage of net income after tax to total assets

$\text{ROA}=\frac{\text{Profitaftertax}}{\text{Totalassets}}$

[49] [50]

Return-on-Equity

ROE

Measured as percentage of net income after tax to total equity

$\text{ROE}=\frac{\text{Profitaftertax}}{\text{Shareholdersfund}}$

[51] [52]

Tobin’s Q

TQ

Measured as the market value of equity capital and the book value of firm’s debt divided by the book value of total assets

$=\frac{\text{MarketCapitalization}+\text{Totalassets}-\text{Shareholdersfund}}{\text{Totalassets}}$

[51] [53]

Control Variables

Firm Size

Fsize

The total assets owned by the firm, measured as the natural logarithm of total assets

[54]

Firm Age

FAge

Measured as the number of years since its incorporation in its logarithm

[55]

Firm Leverage

FLEV

Measured as percentage of total debt to total assets

Total debts/total equity

[51]