Gender diversity, state control, and corporate risk-taking: Evidence from China

•Male-only boards significantly increase corporate risk-taking.•State-controlled firms are less willing to take risk.•Chinese firms show an increase in corporate risk taking after 2005.•Governments need to promote gender diversity in boardrooms.

Corporate risk-taking activities among Chinese corporations generally increase with the presence of male-only boards but are mitigated by state ownership. The positive relation between corporate risk-taking and male dominance in boardrooms became more prominent after the Government reduced its ownership control following the Non-Tradable Share (NTS) reform launched in 2005. The reduction in corporate risk-taking through state ownership tends to weaken after the NTS reform. Our results are robust to endogeneity issues and highlight the benefit of gender diversity in alleviating excess corporate risk-taking behavior, especially in countries with relatively weaker overall investor protection.