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 "while 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.