The board of directors’ diversity plays a crucial role in the firm’s decision-making process, which includes risk management. This study proposes a multidimensional index to measure board diversity. We use the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 1500 between 1996 and 2013 to analyse the relationship between board diversity and credit risk. We find an inverse and significative relation between board diversity and credit risk, which means that diversity matters in credit risk, and more diversity leads to less credit risk.
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