The survival and growth of establishments: does gender segregation matter?

Abstract

We empirically study gender segregation in privately owned Swedish establishments, and the correlation between gender segregation, survival and growth of establishments. We find that the overall inter-establishment gender segregation in Sweden has been constant between 1987 and 1995 and at the same level as that found in US manufacturing. Our results show that establishments dominated by males or females have a higher probability of exiting the market than more integrated establishments and that establishments dominated by females grow more slowly than other establishments. An important additional finding is that establishments with a skewed workforce in terms of educational background have lower survival probabilities. Furthermore, establishments with skewed age distributions have both lower survival probabilities and grow less compared with other establishments. These findings are consistent with theories suggesting that workers with different demographic characteristics contribute to a creative working environment as a result of their different experiences, a greater variety of information sources and different ‘thinking’.

Citation

Persson, H. and Sjögren Lindquist, G. (2010), "The survival and growth of establishments: does gender segregation matter?", Polachek, S.W. and Tatsiramos, K. (Ed.) Jobs, Training, and Worker Well-being (Research in Labor Economics, Vol. 30), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 253-282. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0147-9121(2010)0000030011