Islamist terrorism and the status of women

We investigate the effect of Islamist terrorist activity on women's legal position in society, using data for 171 countries between 1970 and 2016. To identify causal effects, we exploit the prevalence of Islamist terrorism in neighboring countries as an exogenous source of variation, arguing that regional terrorism affects local terrorism through contagion effects. We show that increased activity by Islamist terrorist groups is linked to lower legal status of women. By contrast, we find that neither Islam per se nor other types of terrorism have comparable effects. This reinforces the notion that Islamist terrorism is singularly interested and effective in weakening women's rights. Our results are consistent with a rational-economic model of terrorism, where Islamist terrorists purposefully use violence to maximize political utility, while governments make concessions that constrain the role of women because the costs of compliance are lower than the harm from continued Islamist terrorism.     

The aggregate gains of eliminating gender and ethnic gaps in the Malaysian labor market

We use microdata to calculate the gains of eliminating gender and ethnic labor market gaps in Malaysia for the period 2010–2017. We document significant gaps in terms of participation in the labor market and entrepreneurship, distinguishing between employers and self-employed. Female-male ratios are 64% for labor market participation, 82% for self-employment, and 32% for being employers. Across different age and ethnic groups, gender gaps in labor force participation are particularly pronounced for older workers and in entrepreneurship for Chinese workers. Our results indicate substantial income gains if gender and ethnic gaps were eliminated. Eliminating the entrepreneurship gender gaps increases income per capita by 6.54% in the long run. When we also include the employment gender gap, the long-run gains are 26.18%. The elimination of ethnic gaps could in the long run result in a smaller but still sizeable increase in income per capita of 11.5%.     

More mindfulness,less conspicuous consumption? Evidence from middle-aged Chinese consumers

Mindfulness has attracted more and more attention from researchers in many disciplines, including consumer behavior. This study adopted the mindfulness reperceiving model to examine the effect of mindfulness on conspicuous consumption and the mechanism of this effect. Data from middle-aged consumers were collected through a two-wave questionnaire survey with a 3-month interval in China (n = 433). Results of regression-based analyses revealed that mindfulness was negatively associated with conspicuous consumption through lower materialism and lower status anxiety, and the mediating effect of status anxiety was stronger for married men than married women. The current study is a novel attempt to demonstrate the possible relations among mindfulness, materialism, status anxiety, and conspicuous consumption. These findings provide a new perspective for understanding why people who are mindful engage in less conspicuous consumption, and they have heuristic value for future research.     

The Arab Spring,a setback for gender equality? Evidence from the Gallup World Poll

Combining a unique dataset from the Gallup World Poll for the period 2009–2018 with Wolfsfeld et al.’s (2013) protest index, we evaluate the impact of the Arab Spring pro-democracy protests on gender equality in eleven Middle Eastern and North African countries. We use a difference-in-differences approach and find a negative impact of mass protests on female access to labor markets and support for women’s rights in the years following the events. In particular, a one-standard-deviation increase in the protest intensity lowered female participation rates by 3.7 % points. Likewise, Arab Spring protests significantly lowered support for women’s legal rights, occupational rights, and divorce rights. Findings are robust to different samples, alternative model specifications, omitted variable bias, and an alternative protest measure from Steinert-Threlkeld (2017). Regarding potential mechanisms, we suggest that a shift in the Arab zeitgeist towards a less secular society might help explain our findings.     

Gender discrimination and lending to women: The moderating effect of an international founder

Much of the microfinance rhetoric revolves around fighting female poverty, which is often the result of discriminatory gender norms. Also, the microfinance industry has always been influenced by foreign actors, who, according to the literature, promote women’s empowerment. Yet, little is known about how microfinance institutions’ (MFIs) outreach to women is affected by the interplay between societal norms and the actions of these foreign actors. In response, this study draws on two streams of institutional theory, institutional logics perspective and institutional work theory, to investigate the influence of gender discrimination on microfinance outreach to women and to test the moderating effect of an international founder. Using data on 213 MFIs from 65 countries, the results show that gender discrimination negatively impacts microfinance outreach to women, but that the negative effect is mitigated by having an international founder. These findings are discussed, and several avenues are opened for future research.     

Consumer multihoming predisposition on food platforms: Does gender matter?

Although food platforms are witnessing greater competition and shrinking margins in emerging markets, consumer multihoming remains an underexplored phenomenon. Previous studies highlight the inverse relationship between consumers' commitment to service providers and their multihoming behaviour. Also, behavioural studies confirm the relationship between consumers' commitment and gender. In this vein, we ask a fundamental question: whether gender is associated with user multihoming predisposition? Based on the questionnaire survey of 493 food platform users and the Kruskal–Wallis H (K–W–H) analysis used, we establish a direct association between gender and multihoming. The probit analysis suggests higher multihoming promiscuousness among male consumers than among female consumers. Moreover, we conclude that the frequency of platform usage positively affects multihoming behaviour among female consumers, while education affects multihoming in males. The study thus builds upon existing food platform literature and provides an epistemological connection between gender and multihoming. Further, it outlines strategies that platform firms can use to restrain their clientele from multihoming.     

Parenthood penalty and gender wage gap: Recent evidence from Thailand

This study first examines the evolution of gender wage gap in Thailand, using cross-sectional data from the Labor Force Survey (LFS) for 1985–2017. We find that education, occupation, and industry significantly contribute to gender wage gap convergence in Thailand. Furthermore, for females, the wage gap between mothers and non-mothers has increased over time, while for males, the changes are relatively small. Thereafter, we examine the gender wage gap associated with marriage and parental status, using panel data from the Socio-Economic Survey (SES) for 2005–2012, and find wage penalty for both motherhood and fatherhood in Thailand.     

Parental and sibling influence on study field choice: Gender-stereotypical or field preference transmission

Using respondents’ perceptions about parental and siblings’ influences on their educational decisions in the data of Taiwan Panel Survey of Family Dynamics, we found that sons’ study choices are more likely than those of daughters to be influenced by parents. In addition, females are likely to be influenced by their sisters to choose a non-science-related study field. Moreover, when fathers influence their sons’ educational decisions, sons tend to choose science-related study fields. Conversely, if mothers play a role in their sons’ educational decisions, sons are more likely to choose a non-science-related study field. From the cross-sex influences on children’s study field choice, that is, fathers’ influence on daughters and mothers’ influence on sons, we find that the effects of parents’ field preferences are stronger than the effects of parental gender stereotype. The gender of the influential family member is the key to determining whether the influenced member chooses a science or non-science study field. Furthermore, although we cannot prove a significant relationship between the degree of masculinity constructed from parents’ occupations and children’s study field choice, we show that parents play a vital role in field choice. In addition, we employ the bounding approach to show that our main findings remain robust to potential omitted-variable bias.     

When does the Japan Empowering Women Index outperform its parent and the ESG Select Leaders Indexes?

This paper examines and compares the performance of the Japan Empowering Women Index (WIN), Japan ESG Select Leaders Index (SLI), and their parent, the Japanese Investable Market Index (IMI) using data from April 2013 to October 2020. Without regime switching, our benchmark analysis suggests that none of the indexes outperforms the market on average. We also investigate the possible regime-dependent performance of each index to identify the periods when WIN outperforms the market, the IMI, and the SLI, if ever. Our results indicate regime-dependent performance of the WIN and IMI and regime-independent performance of the SLI. For example, when the market performance of the previous month is relatively poor, the WIN tends to outperform the market, while the IMI tends to underperform. Our results also show that, when the market volatility of the previous month is relatively small, the WIN outperforms the market. However, the WIN and IMI tend to underperform the market under the high market volatility regime.     

Does the digital economy generate a gender dividend for female employment? Evidence from China

Using data from the China General Social Survey, the China Family Panel Studies, and a unique dataset of enterprises' online recruitment, this research examines the effect of the digital economy on female employment. The empirical results suggest that the digital economy significantly promotes female employment. Consistent with our theoretical analysis, the estimates indicate that this relationship holds because the digital economy promotes the formation of egalitarian gender perspectives, promotes the use of digital technology, and increases labor demand emphasizing the necessity for female-preference occupations. The dividend of the digital economy is tilted toward vulnerable groups in the labor market, including the low-skilled, older, and rural workforce, and only exerts an employment promotion effect on women without parenting burden. Further examination reveals evidence that digitalization has not led to a holistic improvement in the quality of female employment. Digitalization lengthens the working hours of severely underemployed female workers, and improves women's occupational status and job satisfaction; however, it has a minimal impact on protecting employees' rights and interests or reducing overtime workers' work intensity. Nonself-employed, full-time, and part-time workers all benefit from the development of the digital economy, while self-employed workers do not. In addition, a weakening effect of digitalization on the gender employment gap is not evident, which relates to the digital economy generating a female dividend in terms of promoting gender equality and increasing labor demand but resulting in a digital gender divide in the use of digital technology.