Tuesday's post took note of a recent study authored by Sunwoo Hwang and Professors Anil Shivdasani and Elena Simintzi at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School.  They found that California's enactment of SB 826 imposing gender quotas on publicly traded corporations has "resulted in a significant decline in shareholder value for firms headquartered in California".

The authors note that "[w]hile the intent of gender diversity laws is undoubtedly to widen the pool of qualified women board members, its limited size nonetheless remains a constraint for firms in the short run".  They then hypothesize that firms with headquarters located in proximity to a major airport face less constraints because they will have access to a pool of women candidates outside of California.  If they are correct, the cost of achieving gender diversity can be reduced by moving the corporate headquarters to a location near a major airport.