Global Influences on Gender Inequality: Evidence from Female Employment in Korea

Jaerim Choi () and Theresa Greaney

No 202003, Working Papers from University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics

Abstract: Do multinational enterprises (MNEs) from more gender-equal countries bring gender-equal employment practices with them to a less gender-equal host country? Using difference-in-differences, nearest-neighbor-matching, and event study techniques along with firm-level data for Korea, a country with low gender equality, we find evidence that MNEs bring their country of origin’s gender norms in employment with them. Korean firms that switch to majority foreign ownership report 2 to 12 percentage-points higher female shares of permanent main-task workers at firm headquarters compared with non-acquired firms and the differential increases with the level of gender equality in the MNEs’ home countries. We estimate that 1 to 7 percent of the productivity increase caused by foreign acquisition can be attributed to workforce reorganization that may reduce gender-based misallocations of talent.

Keywords: Gender inequality; Foreign ownership (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/research/workingpapers/WP_20-03R.pdf First version, 2020 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: GLOBAL INFLUENCES ON GENDER INEQUALITY: EVIDENCE FROM FEMALE EMPLOYMENT IN KOREA (2022)
Working Paper: Global Influences on Gender Inequality: Evidence from Female Employment in Korea (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hai:wpaper:202003

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.economics ... esearch/working.html

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Web Technician ().