Companies are terrified of being called sexist, but if one firm starts treating people fairly, it spreads to everyone else like a virus.
April 10, 2026
Original Paper
Learning from International Trade: Asymmetric Cultural Transmission and Gender Discrimination
SSRN · 6440398
The Takeaway
When firms trade with countries that treat women well, they start hiring more women themselves. However, trading with sexist countries doesn't make those same firms more biased—corporate culture seems to only mirror the 'better' traits of its partners.
From the abstract
This paper investigates how trade partner affects the employment composition of firms. We document novel empirical patterns using Chinese Customs data linked to the industrial firms survey: Chinese firms trading with more gender-equal countries hire a higher fraction of female workers, but not when they trade with less gender-equal countries. The effect is more pronounced for new firms and for high-skilled female workers. We propose a model of learning that is consistent with the empirical findi