Board diversity of banks and tax avoidance of selected West African Countries: a study of Liberia.

Abstract

The board of directors constitutes one of the pillars of a robust corporate governance framework, and diversifying the board is a contemporary issue in the corporate governance literature. Banks in Liberia continue to engage in tax avoidance practices, raising concerns about weak corporate governance. However, the influence of board diversity on these practices remains unclear and underexplored. This study examined the impact of board diversity on the tax aggressiveness of quoted deposit money banks in Liberia. An ex post facto research design was adopted, and data were sourced from published financial reports of the quoted deposit money banks for a period of 7 years, from 2017 to 2022. The study covered all the quoted deposit money banks of Liberia, and this was achieved using a census approach technique. Data gathered for this study were analyzed using quantitative econometric techniques (correlation and panel regression analysis method OLS). Findings from the study revealed that gender diversity has a substantial impact on deposit money banks and tax avoidance. Also, it was revealed that educational history composition has little substantial impact on how the board of directors behaves when it comes to tax evasion.