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Missing Women, Integration Costs, and Big Push Policies in the Saudi Labor Market

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  • Conrad Miller
  • Jennifer Peck
  • Mehmet Seflek

Abstract

In settings where social norms promote gender segregation, firms may find it costly to employ both men and women. These integration costs may hinder women's employment. We develop a methodology to test for the presence of fixed integration costs and estimate counterfactual women's employment at all-male firms where these costs bind. We apply our approach in Saudi Arabia and find that integration costs bind for the majority of firms. We show that Nitaqat, a gender-neutral quota program that incentivized the hiring of Saudi nationals at private sector firms, induced firms to integrate and dramatically increased Saudi women's employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Conrad Miller & Jennifer Peck & Mehmet Seflek, 2022. "Missing Women, Integration Costs, and Big Push Policies in the Saudi Labor Market," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(2), pages 51-77, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejapp:v:14:y:2022:i:2:p:51-77
    DOI: 10.1257/app.20200220
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jennifer R. Peck, 2017. "Can Hiring Quotas Work? The Effect of the Nitaqat Program on the Saudi Private Sector," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 316-347, May.
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    Cited by:

    1. Eger, Claudia & Fetzer, Thiemo & Peck, Jennifer & Alodayni, Saleh, 2022. "Organizational, economic or cultural? Firm-side barriers to employing women in Saudi Arabia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    2. Durand-Lasserve, Olivier, 2022. "Nationalization of the private sector labor force, quotas, matching and public jobs, an illustration with Saudi Arabia," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 98-117.
    3. Pedro Bento & Lin Shao & Faisal Sohail, 2023. "Gender Gaps in Time Use and Entrepreneurship," Working Papers 20230901-001, Texas A&M University, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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