Does female labor scarcity encourage innovation? Evidence from China's gender imbalance

This paper studies how the scarcity of different types of workers in a region shapes firm innovation across industries, using the unbalanced regional sex ratios in China as a source of identification strategy. The empirical results show that the shortage of female workers has spurred firms in female...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Chen, Taoran, Tan, Zhibo, Zhang, Xiaobo
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Wiley 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141178
_version_ 1855516434293063680
author Chen, Taoran
Tan, Zhibo
Zhang, Xiaobo
author_browse Chen, Taoran
Tan, Zhibo
Zhang, Xiaobo
author_facet Chen, Taoran
Tan, Zhibo
Zhang, Xiaobo
author_sort Chen, Taoran
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description This paper studies how the scarcity of different types of workers in a region shapes firm innovation across industries, using the unbalanced regional sex ratios in China as a source of identification strategy. The empirical results show that the shortage of female workers has spurred firms in female‐intensive industries to innovate more, particularly in industries with low substitution between female and male workers, consistent with the price effect of the directed technical change theory. In male‐intensive industries with high elasticity of substitution and regions with more skewed local sex ratios, firms are more innovative, demonstrating that the market size effect of the directed technical change theory is also at play.
format Journal Article
id CGSpace141178
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
publishDateSort 2022
publisher Wiley
publisherStr Wiley
record_format dspace
spelling CGSpace1411782025-10-26T13:01:39Z Does female labor scarcity encourage innovation? Evidence from China's gender imbalance Chen, Taoran Tan, Zhibo Zhang, Xiaobo innovation gender gender balance labour labour scarcity women female labour This paper studies how the scarcity of different types of workers in a region shapes firm innovation across industries, using the unbalanced regional sex ratios in China as a source of identification strategy. The empirical results show that the shortage of female workers has spurred firms in female‐intensive industries to innovate more, particularly in industries with low substitution between female and male workers, consistent with the price effect of the directed technical change theory. In male‐intensive industries with high elasticity of substitution and regions with more skewed local sex ratios, firms are more innovative, demonstrating that the market size effect of the directed technical change theory is also at play. 2022-04 2024-04-12T13:37:24Z 2024-04-12T13:37:24Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141178 en https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2021.102678 https://doi.org/10.1093/jleo/ewab008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.12.001 https://doi.org/10.3868/s060-005-016-0020-2 Limited Access Wiley Chen, Taoran; Tan, Zhibo; and Zhang, Xiaobo. 2022. Does female labor scarcity encourage innovation? Evidence from China's gender imbalance. Journal of Economics & Management Strategy 31(2): 418-447. https://doi.org/10.1111/jems.12462
spellingShingle innovation
gender
gender balance
labour
labour scarcity
women
female labour
Chen, Taoran
Tan, Zhibo
Zhang, Xiaobo
Does female labor scarcity encourage innovation? Evidence from China's gender imbalance
title Does female labor scarcity encourage innovation? Evidence from China's gender imbalance
title_full Does female labor scarcity encourage innovation? Evidence from China's gender imbalance
title_fullStr Does female labor scarcity encourage innovation? Evidence from China's gender imbalance
title_full_unstemmed Does female labor scarcity encourage innovation? Evidence from China's gender imbalance
title_short Does female labor scarcity encourage innovation? Evidence from China's gender imbalance
title_sort does female labor scarcity encourage innovation evidence from china s gender imbalance
topic innovation
gender
gender balance
labour
labour scarcity
women
female labour
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141178
work_keys_str_mv AT chentaoran doesfemalelaborscarcityencourageinnovationevidencefromchinasgenderimbalance
AT tanzhibo doesfemalelaborscarcityencourageinnovationevidencefromchinasgenderimbalance
AT zhangxiaobo doesfemalelaborscarcityencourageinnovationevidencefromchinasgenderimbalance