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Do Firms Respond to Gender Pay Gap Transparency?

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  • Simintzi, Elena
  • Bennedsen, Morten
  • Tsoutsoura, Margarita
  • Wolfenzon, Daniel

Abstract

We examine the effect of pay transparency on gender pay gap and firm outcomes. This paper exploits a 2006 legislation change in Denmark that requires firms to provide gender disaggregated wage statistics. Using detailed employee-employer administrative data and a difference-in-differences and difference-in-discontinuities designs, we find the law reduces the gender pay gap, primarily by slowing the wage growth for male employees. The gender pay gap declines by approximately two percentage points, or a 13% reduction relative to the pre-legislation mean. Despite the reduction of the overall wage bill, the wage-transparency mandate does not affect firm profitability, likely because of the offsetting effect of reduced firm productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Simintzi, Elena & Bennedsen, Morten & Tsoutsoura, Margarita & Wolfenzon, Daniel, 2019. "Do Firms Respond to Gender Pay Gap Transparency?," CEPR Discussion Papers 14237, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14237
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    Cited by:

    1. Andreas Gulyas & Sebastian Seitz & Sourav Sinha, 2020. "Does Pay Transparency Affect the Gender Wage Gap? Evidence From Austria," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2020_194v1, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    2. Shuai Chen & Jan C. van Ours, 2022. "Mental health effects of same‐sex marriage legalization," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 42-56, January.
    3. Laura Hospido & Luc Laeven & Ana Lamo, 2022. "The Gender Promotion Gap: Evidence from Central Banking," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(5), pages 981-996, December.
    4. René Böheim & Sarah Gust, 2022. "The Austrian Pay Transparency Law and the Gender Wage Gap," CESifo Forum, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 23(02), pages 25-28, March.
    5. Michael Baker & Yosh Halberstam & Kory Kroft & Alexandre Mas & Derek Messacar, 2023. "Pay Transparency and the Gender Gap," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 157-183, April.
    6. Gamage, Danula K. & Kavetsos, Georgios & Mallick, Sushanta & Sevilla, Almudena, 2020. "Pay Transparency Initiative and Gender Pay Gap: Evidence from Research-Intensive Universities in the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 13635, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Emma Duchini & Stefania Simion & Arthur Turrell & Jack Blundell, 2020. "Pay Transparency and Gender Equality," Papers 2006.16099, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2022.
    8. Martínez-Correa, Jimmy & Andersen, Steffen & d’Astous, Philippe & H. Shore, Stephen, 2020. "Cross-Program Differences in Returns to Education and the Gender Earnings Gap," Working papers 48, Red Investigadores de Economía.
    9. Jacek GRODZICKI, 2020. "Pay Transparency From A Young Employee'S Perspective In Poland," Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, Faculty of Sciences, "1 Decembrie 1918" University, Alba Iulia, vol. 2(22), pages 47-52.
    10. Carlos F. Avenancio-León & Leslie Sheng Shen, 2021. "The Intangible Gender Gap: An Asset Channel of Inequality," International Finance Discussion Papers 1322, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    11. Azmat, Ghazala & Boring, Anne, 2020. "Gender Diversity in Firms," IZA Policy Papers 168, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Masso, Jaan & Meriküll, Jaanika & Vahter, Priit, 2022. "The role of firms in the gender wage gap," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 454-473.
    13. Blundell, Jack, 2021. "Wage responses to gender pay gap reporting requirements," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114416, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Sourav Sinha, 2022. "US Salary History Bans -- Strategic Disclosure by Job Applicants and the Gender Pay Gap," Papers 2202.03602, arXiv.org.
    15. Srikant Devaraj & Pankaj C. Patel, 2022. "State bans on pay secrecy and earnings: Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(4), pages 697-734, December.
    16. Zoë B. Cullen & Bobak Pakzad‐Hurson, 2023. "Equilibrium Effects of Pay Transparency," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(3), pages 765-802, May.
    17. Duchini, Emma & Simion, Stefania & Turrell, Arthur, 2020. "Pay Transparency and Cracks in the Glass Ceiling," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1311, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    18. Vazquez, Antonio B. & Martinez, Sofia, 2022. "Mandatory ESG Reporting and Corporate Performance," Misum Working Paper Series 2022-5, Stockholm School of Economics, Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets (Misum), revised 30 Jan 2023.
    19. Enrico Rubolino, 2022. "Taxing the Gender Gap: Labor Market Effects of a Payroll Tax Cut for Women in Italy," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie 22.01, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie.
    20. Morchio, Iacopo & Moser, Christian, 2018. "The Gender Pay Gap: Micro Sources and Macro Consequences," MPRA Paper 99276, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 24 Mar 2020.
    21. Cruz, Gabriel & Rau, Tomás, 2022. "The effects of equal pay laws on firm pay premiums: Evidence from Chile," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    22. Wolfgang Frimmel & Bernhard Schmidpeter & Rene Wiesinger & Rudolf Winter-Ebmer, 2022. "Mandatory Wage Posting, Bargaining and the Gender Wage Gap," Economics working papers 2022-02, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    23. Jack Blundell, 2021. "Wage responses to gender pay gap reporting requirements," CEP Discussion Papers dp1750, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    24. Bamieh, Omar & Ziegler, Lennart, 2022. "Can Wage Transparency Alleviate Gender Sorting in the Labor Market?," IZA Discussion Papers 15363, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    25. René Böheim & Marian Fink & Christine Zulehner, 2021. "Die Entwicklung des Lohnunterschiedes zwischen Frauen und Männern in Österreich von 2005 bis 2019," WIFO Research Briefs 2, WIFO.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender pay gap; transparency; Difference-in-discontinuities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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