Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Working Knowledge
Business Research for Business Leaders
  • Browse All Articles
  • Popular Articles
  • Cold Call Podcasts
  • About Us
  • Leadership
  • Marketing
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Entrepreneurship
  • All Topics...
  • Topics
    • COVID-19
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Finance
    • Gender
    • Globalization
    • Leadership
    • Management
    • Negotiation
    • Social Enterprise
    • Strategy
  • Sections
    • Book
    • Cold Call Podcast
    • HBS Case
    • In Practice
    • Lessons from the Classroom
    • Op-Ed
    • Research & Ideas
    • Research Event
    • Sharpening Your Skills
    • What Do You Think?
    • Working Paper Summaries
  • Browse All
    • COVID-19 Business Impact Center
      COVID-19 Business Impact Center
      Does Public Ownership and Accountability Increase Diversity? Evidence from IPOs
      06 Feb 2019Working Paper Summaries

      Does Public Ownership and Accountability Increase Diversity? Evidence from IPOs

      by Rembrand Koning and John-Paul Ferguson
      Going public has no effect on workforce diversity, according to this study comparing changes in firms’ ownership type with longitudinal data on employment. For workforce diversity, the time to make a difference is probably not after an initial public offering but rather in the years just after firm founding.
      LinkedIn
      Email

      Author Abstract

      Does public ownership improve employment diversity? Organizational researchers theorize that increased transparency to regulators and the public should lead firms to conform to legal and social norms—but that social closure and decoupling should preserve the status quo. Empirical research has been difficult because we lack data on comparable private firms and because firms likely self-select into going public. We construct a new, nationally representative dataset that links firms’ filings for initial public offerings to longitudinal data on employment composition from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. We construct a set of comparable firms by looking at companies that filed and then withdrew a plan for an IPO. To account for selection bias in withdrawal and IPO success, we instrument the transition to public ownership using market returns in the book-building phase of the firms’ IPO attempts. We find no evidence that moving from private to public ownership increases the representation of women or nonwhite workers or managers. We discuss the implications of this finding for our ability to generalize findings in organizational research.

      Paper Information

      • Full Working Paper Text
      • Working Paper Publication Date: January 2019
      • HBS Working Paper Number: HBS Working Paper #19-071
      • Faculty Unit(s): Strategy
        Trending
          • 29 Oct 2020
          • Research & Ideas

          The COVID Gender Gap: Why Fewer Women Are Dying

          • 13 Jul 2020
          • Research & Ideas

          Merck CEO Ken Frazier Discusses a COVID Cure, Racism, and Why Leaders Need to Walk the Talk

          • 11 Jan 2021
          • Research & Ideas

          Is A/B Testing Effective? Evidence from 35,000 Startups

          • 17 Feb 2020
          • Sharpening Your Skills

          How Entrepreneurs Can Find the Right Problem to Solve

          • 13 Jan 2021
          • Research & Ideas

          How 'Small C' Change Can Beat Large-Scale Rebuilding

      Rembrand M. Koning
      Rembrand M. Koning
      Assistant Professor of Business Administration
      Contact
      Send an email
      → More Articles
      Find Related Articles
      • Diversity
      • Initial Public Offering

      Sign up for our weekly newsletter

      Interested in improving your business? Learn about fresh research and ideas from Harvard Business School faculty.
      ǁ
      Campus Map
      Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
      Baker Library | Bloomberg Center
      Soldiers Field
      Boston, MA 02163
      Email: Editor-in-Chief
      →Map & Directions
      →More Contact Information
      • Make a Gift
      • Site Map
      • Jobs
      • Harvard University
      • Trademarks
      • Policies
      • Digital Accessibility
      Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College