ELITE-WoB · Elite Power and Corporate Misconduct: Women Directors, Safeguards or Scapegoats?

Corporate misconduct remains a systemic challenge for European firms, producing not only fines and reputational losses but also systemic costs for markets and regulators. A critical source of this vulnerability lies in directors’ external connections. Multiple directorships and political ties can provide firms with valuable resources, networks, and access to government contracts. Yet these same connections may entrench executives, weaken oversight, and heighten the likelihood of misconduct. This project asks whether gender can alter this dynamic. Women directors—positively selected, reputation-constrained, and less embedded in “old boys’ clubs”—may diminish entrenchment and reinforce reputational oversight. Business-connected women, pressured by reputation, and politically-connected women, subject to heightened scrutiny, could allow firms to capture the benefits of connections without amplifying misconduct risks.The project pursues two objectives. First, it will quantify whether business interlocks and political ties increase the risk of misconduct, and test whether women directors diminish these effects. Second, it will examine whether, after misconduct events, women directors face disproportionate accountability—higher turnover, slower reappointment, or reputational penalties—becoming scapegoats despite their potential role as safeguards. Methodologically, the project uses panel econometrics with firm and year fixed effects, IV, DiD around regulatory shocks, and propensity score matching to identify causal effects. Event-study and survival analyses will track post-misconduct career outcomes by gender. The findings will provide novel evidence on how gender reshapes the risks and consequences of elite connections in corporate boards, offering timely guidance for regulators and firms seeking more ethical and accountable governance in Europe.