Flirting with the Investor? A Study on the Effects of Female CEOs' Signaling Value on IPO Underpricing

Abstract: This study investigates the potential signaling value a female CEO emits and its effect on IPO underpricing. By using a multiple variable regression model, 249 IPOs in Sweden from 2005 to the beginning of 2022 were analyzed. The results show a slight, but statistically insignificant, increase in underpricing when the firm had a female CEO. The analysis furthermore covers the variability of firms' initial returns, showing that a female CEO decreases this variability. However, these results are also insignificant. We can therefore not find evidence supporting that female CEOs emit either a positive or negative signal that affects IPO underpricing.