IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/brjirl/v63y2025i4p587-609.html

Workplace Anti‐Discrimination and Corporate Organization Capital: Evidence From State LGBTQ Protection Laws

Author

Listed:
  • Jiming Liu
  • Kehan Zhang
  • Kai Wu

Abstract

This paper examines how prohibiting LGBTQ workplace discrimination through state‐level Employment Non‐Discrimination Acts (ENDAs) affects corporate investments in organization capital. Using difference‐in‐differences analysis of US public firms from 1976 to 2020, we find ENDAs adoption causes a significant and persistent increase in various measures of organization capital. The positive impact is amplified for states and firms exhibiting greater ex ante acceptance of diversity. We also document that ENDAs increase corporate cash holdings and operating flexibility, validating employee protection as an intermediary channel. Our study demonstrates that ENDAs meaningfully increased corporate organization capital over the past four decades, highlighting how equal opportunity laws can enhance knowledge‐based assets and resilience by improving human capital retention, recruitment, and motivation.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiming Liu & Kehan Zhang & Kai Wu, 2025. "Workplace Anti‐Discrimination and Corporate Organization Capital: Evidence From State LGBTQ Protection Laws," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 63(4), pages 587-609, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:63:y:2025:i:4:p:587-609
    DOI: 10.1111/bjir.12882
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12882
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/bjir.12882?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:brjirl:v:63:y:2025:i:4:p:587-609. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.