Research

In many countries, gender board quotas have emerged as a policy of choice to tackle gender inequalities in the workplace. Introduced in 2010, France’s 40% quota targets both listed and large unlisted companies. We examine its effectiveness by assessing its impact on the representation of women at the top of the firm hierarchy and on wage gaps. We first construct and analyze a unique dataset on the board composition of all French firms from 2008 to 2021. The average female board share rose from 11% in 2009 to 42% in 2021 for targeted listed firms, but only from 14% to 30% for targeted unlisted firms. A higher female board share results in a higher probability of having a female CEO, and more women among top executives and top earners. It also helps women in the lower echelons by substantially reducing gender wage gaps across the wage distribution. Evidence suggests that the positive effect on women’s representation at the top is primarily driven by external hires rather than internal promotions, while the reduction in wage gaps benefits both newly hired and incumbent employees at every echelon.

We evaluate the impact of an online platform giving job seekers tips to improve their search and recommendations of new occupations and locations to target, based on their personal data and labor market data. Our experiment used an encouragement design and was conducted in collaboration with the French public employment agency. It includes 212,277 individuals. We find modest effects on search methods: the platform’s users adopt some of its tips and are more likely to use resources provided by public employment services. However, following individual trajectories for 18 months after the intervention, we do not observe any impact on time spent looking for a job, search scope (occupational or geographical), or self-reported well-being. Most importantly, we do not find any effect on any employment outcome in the short or medium run. We conclude that the enthusiasm around the potential for job-search assistance platforms to help reduce unemployment should be toned down.