Interpretation of outputs

[zaineb belkhiria]

hello everyone
I am studying the existence of women in the board of directors on leverage on the one hand and on debt maturity on the other hand. My dependent variables are LEVERAGE and MATURITY. For this purpose, I have used a two-step system GMM model.
I have calculated the leverage by totaldebt/equity and Maturity by long-term debt/totaldebt. The estimation results gave me that the existence of women on boards has no effect on leverage. but it does have an effect on debt maturity.
how can I explain this result? Does it make sense that women have no effect on Leverage but they do have an effect on Maturity?
I hope you have understood me and I hope you could help me.
Best regards.

[Carlo Lazzaro]

Zaineb:
your description can only allow a bit of guess-work; mine follows, with the proviso that my closer relationships with corporate finance date back to some decades ago:
1) other things beng equal, women are not better than men in managing the financial leverage of the company (BTW: a bad or a good financial leverage is industry-specific);
2) other things beng equal, women are better than men in negotiating long term-debt (this seems relevant, because it may favour a negative working capital cycle: while your customers pay you today, you pay your vendors/providers/suppiers tomorrow or, even better, the day after tomorrow).

[zaineb belkhiria]

Thank you very much for your reply Sir.
Then it can be said that women are not involved in the decision of the company to take on debt or not. However, when this decision is taken, at that time, women on boards intervene , negotiate, and influence the choice of debts.
right ?
Best regards.

[Carlo Lazzaro]

Zaineb:
1) not quite. Other things being equal, the presence of women in the board of directors shows no evidence of any bearing on the financial leverage (but the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. See: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7647644/ );
2) Correct. Other things being equal, the presence of women in the board of directors shows evidence of long-term debt negotiation.
As an aside, please call me Carlo, as all on (and many more off) this forum do. Thanks.

[zaineb belkhiria]

I really appreciate your response, assistance, and suggestions.
Best regards.