Are Women Executives Disadvantaged?

Abstract

We investigate gender differences in insider trading behavior of senior corporate executives in the U.S. between 1975 and 2005. We find that, on average, both female and male executives make positive profits from insider trading, but males earn about twice as much as females; males also trade more than females. All these results also hold for the sub sample of very top executives. We are able to rule out gender differences in overconfidence and risk-aversion as sole explanations for our results. The results are consistent with the view that female executives have a disadvantage relative to males in accessing inside information