Recent economic literature highlighting the influence of gender discrimination on firm performance suggests that promoting gender diversity is key for boosting a company’s efficiency. This paper analyses the channels through which gender dis-crimination affects a specific performance indicator: the probability of a firm’s sur-vival. The available evidence is controversial. We argue that a complex set of infor-mation at various levels (firm, sector, country, time, etc.) is required to correctly address these issues, i.e., that the data are likely to have a hierachical structure. Against this background, we generalize the standard business demography approach and propose the application of a non-linear, multilevel Cox model. For the empirical application, we focus on the survival probability of European firms in the textile and garment sector, which is characterized by a high percentage of women employees, a wide gender wage gap, and high discrimination. In line with standard business demography studies, we show that size and internationalization modes positively affect firms’ survival probability, while gender-related variables have a significant and negative impact.

Gender discrimination and firm survival: a multilevel approach for EU textiles companies

Velucchi M
2022-01-01

Abstract

Recent economic literature highlighting the influence of gender discrimination on firm performance suggests that promoting gender diversity is key for boosting a company’s efficiency. This paper analyses the channels through which gender dis-crimination affects a specific performance indicator: the probability of a firm’s sur-vival. The available evidence is controversial. We argue that a complex set of infor-mation at various levels (firm, sector, country, time, etc.) is required to correctly address these issues, i.e., that the data are likely to have a hierachical structure. Against this background, we generalize the standard business demography approach and propose the application of a non-linear, multilevel Cox model. For the empirical application, we focus on the survival probability of European firms in the textile and garment sector, which is characterized by a high percentage of women employees, a wide gender wage gap, and high discrimination. In line with standard business demography studies, we show that size and internationalization modes positively affect firms’ survival probability, while gender-related variables have a significant and negative impact.
2022
Gender discrimination
Multilevel Models
Survival Models
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14092/862
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