Why are exporters more gender-friendly? Evidence from China

Although export orientation has been found in some studies to enlarge the female employment share in firms, the explanatory channels have received limited empirical attention. This paper seeks to fill this gap by studying the link between firm export activity and female employment share using matched employer-employee data from China. We find that the female employment share tends to be larger, and the gender earnings gap tends to be smaller in exporters than in non-exporters after controlling for the characteristics of both the employees and their employers. The channel analysis reveals that exporters’ gender-friendlier behaviors are more likely to be driven by cost-competitive motivations rather than by international laws or the exploitation of gender comparative advantages. Further analysis shows that the production profession, non-SOEs, and firms with lower management efficiency in China tend to be more sensitive to market competition.