The Role of Technology in Reducing the Gender Gap in Productivity
This paper explores new firm-level data to examine the gender gap in technology adoption and the associated effect on firm performance. The data show a small difference in technology sophistication between firms managed by women and those managed by men, but there are larger differences in terms of labor productivity. Firms with female top managers are just as likely to adopt the most sophisticated technologies for general business functions that are common across all firms except for enterprise resource planning. However, firms managed by women adopt advanced technologies less frequently for sector-specific business functions. The study also finds that firms with higher technology sophistication tend to have higher productivity and the returns to the use of more sophisticated technologies are larger in businesses managed by women, which helps to narrow the productivity gap between firms managed by women and those managed by men.
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Working Paper biblioteca |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2024-05-16
|
| Subjects: | PRODUCTIVITY, TECHNOLOGY, GENDER GAP, GENDER EQUALITY, SDG 5, INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE, SDG 9, |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099701005152432429/IDU19d64fdd31725014bd11a04b1ee26fb7aba61 https://hdl.handle.net/10986/41551 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | This paper explores new firm-level
data to examine the gender gap in technology adoption and
the associated effect on firm performance. The data show a
small difference in technology sophistication between firms
managed by women and those managed by men, but there are
larger differences in terms of labor productivity. Firms
with female top managers are just as likely to adopt the
most sophisticated technologies for general business
functions that are common across all firms except for
enterprise resource planning. However, firms managed by
women adopt advanced technologies less frequently for
sector-specific business functions. The study also finds
that firms with higher technology sophistication tend to
have higher productivity and the returns to the use of more
sophisticated technologies are larger in businesses managed
by women, which helps to narrow the productivity gap between
firms managed by women and those managed by men. |
|---|