Challenges to shaping an inclusive work-life in rapidly changing labour markets: Firms, Human capital, and Family policy

Governments have implemented policies to address gender disparities and the underrepresentation of women in power, yet equality remains. Significant funds are allocated to social and family policies to promote welfare and equality. Most research and policy reports focus on individual outcomes, overlooking how these policies affect firms and their decisions. Our project, EquiFirm, aims to understand the cost-effectiveness of these policies from the firm's perspective, exploring their impact on social equality. Leveraging natural experiments generated by policy reforms and economic shocks, we will use high-quality administrative data to measure human capital development and careers within firms, considering internal organizational structures. The EquiFirm-project consists of three parts. Part one, WP1, has the goal to investigate the accumulation of human capital and the effects on gender differences in careers in internal labour markets. Part 2, WP2, focuses on how firms respond to social- and family policy changes and their importance for gender differences. WP1 and WP2 exploit merged register data for the analyses. Part three, WP3, has the goal to make methodological contribution by collecting novel data to measure gender differences beyond administrative data. Webpage: https://astridkunze.com/equifirm/

Why are women still underrepresented in top positions, despite the fact that women have reached high education levels and labour market participation? How do careers and strategic human capital, job assignment and work organisation in firms impact gender inequalities? Do governmental policies alter wages and careers in firms? The NFR project EquiFirm aims to provide new insights on these questions of primary interest to academics, politicians, and business by analysing them from the lens of the firm. To answer these questions EquiFirm will develop new measures of human capital development and careers within firms taking account of the organisation structure internal to firms. These are then combined with natural experiments through public policy changes, such as social and family policies. To derive quantitative results, EquiFirm will build a high-quality administrative register database of merged information on firms and workers. Combining new insights in human capital, natural experiments and high-quality data, EquiFirm aims to unfold a detailed picture of adjustments within firms. These include adjustments related to input factors to production, firm entries and closures, organisation and management as well as effects on individual labour market outcomes. Finally, EquiFirm intends to expand our understanding of the cost-effectiveness of public policies and their effects on social equality from the firm perspective. EquiFirm combines methods and interdisciplinary perspectives from economics, sociology, psychology, organization theory and finance.