This thesis is in the field of corporate governance. The corporate governance structure involves laws, rules, and regulations on the distribution of rights and responsibilities among the different stakeholders in the firm. Due to several financial crises in the late 1990s and early 2000s, there has been an increased interest in the regulation of corporate governance. In particular, the composition of the corporate board has achieved extensive attention. The first essay in the thesis investigates stockholders’ reactions to the GBL. The second essay mainly addresses a supposedly unintended consequence of the GBL. Furthermore, this essay explores the link between the GBL and the IC. Finally, using a sample of firms that are neither exposed to the GBL nor the IC, the third essay explores which firms will benefit and which firms will suffer if they had to comply with one of these regulations/recommendations or both.

The papers of this dissertation (pages 15-134) are not available in BI Brage, due to copyright matters: • Article 1: Does mandatory gender balance work? Changing organizational form to avoid board upheaval Authors: Øyvind Bøhren and Siv Staubo • Article 2: Female directors and board independence: Evidence from boards with mandatory gender balance Authors: Øyvind Bøhren and Siv Staubo • Article 3: Determinants of board independence in a free contracting environment Authors: Siv Staubo. - A complete version of the dissertation (print copy) may be ordered from BI’s website: http://www.bi.edu/research/Research-Publications