6/22/2022 — Why do firms offer non-wage compensation instead of the equivalent amount in financial compensation? We argue that firms use nonwage benefits, specifically female-friendly benefits, such as maternity leave, to increase gender diversity by efficiently attracting women.

• KEYWORD(S):
• gender
• inclusion
• inclusive development

7/7/2020 — We examine the effect of paying higher wages on firm performance during the 2008 financial crisis. To identify variation in wages, we rely on heterogeneity in the timing of long-term wage agreements for a sample of UK firms. We instrument for firms signing long-term agreements overlapping with the crisis by the presence of a contract signed in 2006 or earlier and expiring before September 2008. Treated firms paid higher wages but also realized greater labor productivity relative to control firms. These findings are consistent with the intuition that opportunity cost differentials between treated and control firms induce employees to exert higher effort.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance
• organizational behavior

9/21/2022 — First, we address the relationship between ownership and employees’ labor outcomes. Second, we present an overview of the literature studying the relationship between capital structure and labor markets, including the implications of financial distress. Third, we connect labor with the fast-growing literature on inequality within firms and investments in technology adoption.

• KEYWORD(S):
• finance
• labor

5/3/2022 — We examine the effect of pay transparency on gender pay gap and firm outcomes. This paper exploits a 2006 legislation change in Denmark that requires firms to provide gender disaggregated wage statistics. Using detailed employee-employer administrative data and a difference-in-differences and difference-in-discontinuities designs, we find the law reduces the gender pay gap, primarily by slowing the wage growth for male employees.

• KEYWORD(S):
• gender
• operations

10/17/2021 — Following state-level legal changes that increase labor dismissal costs, firms increase their innovation in new processes that facilitate the adoption of cost-saving production methods, especially in industries with a large share of labor costs in total costs. Firms with high innovation ability exhibit larger increases in process innovation and capital-labor ratios, an effect driven by both increases in capital investment and decreases in employment. By facilitating the adjustment of the input mix when conditions in input markets change, innovation ability allows firms to mitigate value losses and is a key driver of their performance.

• KEYWORD(S):
• operations
• strategy and entrepreneurship

8/4/2022 — We study the effect of government-subsidized childcare on women's career outcomes and firm performance using linked tax filing data. Exploiting a universal childcare reform in Quebec in 1997 and the variation in its timing relative to childbirth across cohorts of parents, we show that earlier access to childcare increases employment among new mothers, particularly among those previously unemployed.

• KEYWORD(S):
• gender
• inclusive development
• workforce development

5/5/2022 — We examine the evolution of the gender pay gap in finance, using administrative U.K. data over two decades. We show a persistently larger gender pay gap in finance relative to other sectors, which is predominantly explained by skilled male employees sorting relatively more into finance. The gender pay gap in finance is lower for flexible occupations, in firms providing childcare benefits, and in female-friendly environments. Over time, the difference in the gender pay gap between finance and non-finance sectors has steadily narrowed from 40% in 1997 to 23% in 2019, as more skilled women sort into finance.

• KEYWORD(S):
• bias
• finance
• gender