Featuring research by UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Associate Professor of Finance Paige Ouimet, Assistant Professor of Finance Elena Sminitzi, Ph.D. candidate Tim Liu and MIT Sloan School of Management Digital Fellow Christos Makridis
Companies today are looking to diversify their workforce – and one way in which they’re attracting more women is by providing generous paid maternity leave. In “The Distribution of Non-Wage Benefits: Maternity Benefits and Gender Diversity,” researcher Paige Ouimet and colleagues discovered that firms in industries or geographies where female talent is relatively scarce are more likely to provide liberal maternity benefits, and that such benefits enhance the value of those firms. In contrast, in areas where maternity benefits have become mandated by law, there is a correlated decrease in the stock price of companies that had offered generous benefits prior to the law’s adoption.
Learn more about this research here.