The impact of boardroom diversity on firm financial performance has attracted growing research interest in recent years. However, due to the lack of readily available datasets for other parts of the world, most of the evidence is based on the US data. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between gender diversity in the boardrooms and firm financial performance in a region, where it has never been studied before. Using a sample of 60 firms listed in Abu Dhabi and Dubai Stock Exchanges, first the impact of gender diverse boards on the accounting value of the firms is analyzed. Afterwards, stock price reactions to the announcement of the gender quotas on corporate boards in the UAE are examined. The results do not show a significant impact of female directors on the firm’s both accounting and market value. However, these results should be interpreted carefully since the presence of women in leading positions might affect different aspects of the firm practices.

This study explores the relationship between the U.S. stock returns, Bitcoin returns and their uncertainties by using a multivariate GARCH model. Specifically, the study compares the reactions of Bitcoin and stock market returns in the presence of global uncertainties and changes in risk appetites. The results show that even though reactions of Bitcoin and stock returns are similar for some highly volatile or risk averse periods, the association between the two returns is not sustainable. Moreover, the U.S. stock market investors are found to be risk averse throughout the entire sample period while Bitcoin investors are not.