여성관리자 비율이 지방자치단체 미수금 대손충당금 비율에 미치는 영향

Since early 2000s, the proportion of female directors in Korean local governments has been on the steady rise. Female directors account for about 18% of total directors in local governments as of 2019 compared to 5% at early 2000. While gender quota policy puts forth female representation in government organizations, empirical evidence on the relation between female directors and accounting transparency has been scarce. Prior studies on female directors in for-profit firms suggest that female directors improve financial reporting quality by inviting critical perspectives and enhancing monitoring on information production process. On the other hand, Korean bureaucratic society is still unfriendly to female directors and thus undermines female directors’ capabilities. Hence, it is an empirical question whether the increasing female directors are positively or negatively associated with local governments’ accounting transparency. Drawing from a sample of 224 municipal governments from 2015 to 2018, the current study examines the relationship between female directors’ proportion and accounting transparency, proxied by bad debt allowances for receivables. The empirical results suggest that female directors’ proportion is positively associated with accounting transparency, supporting our hypothesis. We also find that the positive association between female directors and accounting transparency is more pronounced with female-friendly organizational culture, proxied by the number of parental leaves. In additional analyses, we further find that female directors have no significant association with fiscal sustainability and operational efficiency, implying that female directors’ contribution is prominent in accounting transparency.