Jean Lee

Can employer-side wage subsidies increase women’s hiring in low female labor force participation settings? We test this through a randomized experiment with 1,227 Pakistani firms on a national jobs platform. Treatment firms were offered a six-month wage subsidy determined via the Becker–DeGroot–Marschak mechanism. They were 11 percentage points more likely to hire a woman, with larger effects for male-only firms. After 18 months, the treatment effect on employing a woman persisted, though firm-wide share of female employees did not change. Additionally, administrative data show treated firms reduced male-preference language in job postings, consistent with emerging demand-side shifts.