Working Papers

It's a man's world: culture of abuse, #MeToo and worker flows - R&R Economic Journal

with Cyprien Batut and Sarah Schneider-Strawczynski

• Media Coverage: The Economist, Brookings, Knowledge Bocconi, Nada es gratis.

Sexual harassment and sexists behaviors are pervasive issues in the workplace. Around 12% of women in France have been subjected to toxic behaviors at work in the last year, including sexist comments, sexual or physical harassment, or violence. Such toxic behaviors can not only deter women from entering the labor market, but can also lead them to leave toxic workplaces at their own expense. This article is one of the first to examine the relationship between toxic behaviors and worker flows. We use the #MeToo movement as an exogenous shock to France's workplace norms regarding toxic behaviors. We combine survey data on reported toxic behaviors in firms with exhaustive administrative data to create a measure of toxic behaviors risk for all French establishments. We use a triple-difference strategy comparing female and male worker flows in high-risk versus low-risk firms before and after #MeToo. We find that #MeToo increased women's relative exit rates in higher-risk workplaces, while men's worker flows remained unaffected. In particular, we see that women are more likely to quit their job and to experience a wage penalty as a result of switching job. This demonstrates the existence of a double penalty for women working in high-risk environments, as they are not only more frequently the victims of toxic behaviors, but are also forced to quit their jobs in order to avoid them.

• This paper was a finalist for the Distinguished CESifo Young affiliate award at the CESifo Area Conference on Labour Economics.

Reducing the gender pay gap: can we let firms take action? - Rej. & R Labour Economics

In France, women earn about 20% less than men and the cost of this discrimination against women is estimated to be substantial. Policies to decrease the gender pay gap are thus key but state intervention is often criticized as creating one-approach-for-all which is inappropriate for the specific difficulties faced by each sector and firm. In this context, France decided in November 2010 to decentralize the level of action by making mandatory for firms of more than 50 employees to negotiate and sign agreements on professional equality between men and women. In this paper, I estimate the causal effect of the signature of such agreements on the wage gap and other measures of gender inequalities. I combine different administrative datasets to build a unique database identifying the year of signature for each firm. I exploit the staggered signature of agreements over the 2010-2013 period and find that the law had indeed an effect on the signature of those agreements but none on the gender wage gap or on any other measure of inequalities. Those results can be explained by several factors. First, the law made mandatory the signature of agreements but no obligation of results was put in place. Second, the labour inspectors would enforce only the signature of agreements but not their content. Hence, firms did sign agreements but without negotiating any constraining actions, leading to those null effects. 

Women of Struggle: the role of women in the American Labor Movement 

with Paolo Santini

Labor unions have traditionally been the advocates of workers' equality, but women have been under-represented among their ranks for a long time. How do unions fare in terms of gender equality? Have they been precursors or followers in the empowerment of women? Using a novel digitized dataset on the composition of American unions' workers between 1959 and 2016, we analyze the evolution of gender inequalities within these organizations, and compare them with the evolution of inequalities in the general society using the CPS. We find that the share of women among union workers rose quickly in the 1970s as women labor force participation increased. In 2016, around 20% of union top executives were women, almost 4 times the value in listed corporations. Moreover, as women's enrollment in unions' key positions has increased, the officers' gender wage gap in headquarters has decreased and is now very close to zero, even at the very top. Albeit imperfectly, we thus find that unions hold a more progressive view of women in society. Large heterogeneities however exist even within the union movement, pointing towards the fact that gender gaps are strongly influenced by corporate culture.

The Economic Effects of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace - Forthcoming in the LSE Public Policy Review 

with Margaux Suteau

This paper discusses evidence on the economic costs of sexual harassment. We first review the available data sources that allow researchers to measure these costs. Next, we identify studies highlighting the effect of sexual harassment on occupational segregation, job turnover, wage penalties, productivity losses for companies, and female labor participation. In assessing the existing policies, we review the evidence on anti-harassment training, targeted enforcement, and diversity programs and we find promising options for policymakers but note limitations from persisting sexist attitudes. Discussing a novel survey experiment, we illustrate the importance of beliefs in sustaining cultures of harassment, but being potential pathways for solutions. We conclude our review by suggesting that combining accountability measures with interventions to shift norms is crucial for much-needed cultural transformation across gender relations to definitively eliminate sexual harassment. 

Work in Progress

Back to the roots: the impact of culture on post-secondary educational choices

with Margaux Suteau 

The Bystander Issue: Understanding the Role of Beliefs in Workplace Sexual Harassment

with Paola Profeta, Almudena Sevilla and Margaux Suteau 

Changing the media narrative: the role of social movements

with Kenza Elass