TDPE presents: Heiwai Tang

Heiwai Tang on "Do Multinationals Transfer Culture? Evidence on Female Employment in China"

Heiwai Tang, Johns Hopkins University

Authors: Heiwai Tang and Yifan Zhang

This talk studies cross-country transfers of culture by multinational firms as revealed by gender norms in the labor market. Using panel data of Chinese manufacturing firms over the period 2004-2007, we find that foreign affiliates whose home countries’ culture is more equal with regards to women tend to hire proportionately more women and are more likely to appoint female managers. Foreign affiliates, especially those from countries with a more pro-women culture, also generate cultural spillovers to domestic firms, as revealed by a positive correlation between domestic firms' female employment shares and the prevalence of foreign direct investment (FDI) across industries or cities.

Heiwai Tang is Assistant Professor of International Economics at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. His research interests span a wide range of theoretical and empirical topics in international trade. His work has been published in leading journals in economics, including American Economic Review, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Development Economics, and Journal of Law and Economics. Prof. Tang received his PhD in economics from MIT.

Sponsored by the Trade Development and Political Economy Program at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs