EURO 2024 Copenhagen
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1303. Rise of Conscious Consumers: Impacts of Corporate Workplace Equality on Household Spending

Invited abstract in session WA-3: Data Science and Optimization, stream Data Science Meets Optimization.

Wednesday, 8:30-10:00
Room: 1005 (building: 202)

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Chang Liu
City University of Hong Kong

Abstract

We first construct a measure of corporate workplace equality based on textual analysis of equal employment opportunity (EEO) statements in online job postings. We validate this measure by demonstrating its predictive power for future employment discrimination lawsuits and identifying the costs that deter low-equality firms from mimicking high-equality peers. We then show a positive correlation between corporate workplace equality and consumer spending and propose two economic channels: preference and innovation. To establish the preference channel, we demonstrate that the correlation between corporate workplace equality and consumer spending increases when consumer preferences experience exogenous shocks in major social events, such as the MeToo Movement in 2017 and the Black Lives Matter Movement in 2020. This effect is particularly strong among gender and racial minority groups. To establish the innovation channel, we demonstrate a higher correlation between corporate workplace equality and consumer spending among more innovative industries and show that corporate workforce equality can predict innovation efficiency in terms of patent quantity, quality, originality, and generality.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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