Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2019
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Does Public Ownership and Accountability Increase Diversity? Evidence from IPOs

By: Rembrand Koning and John-Paul Ferguson
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:36
ShareBar

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.

Keywords

IPO; Initial Public Offering; Employees; Diversity; Gender; Race; Entrepreneurship; United States

Citation

Koning, Rembrand, and John-Paul Ferguson. "Does Public Ownership and Accountability Increase Diversity? Evidence from IPOs." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-071, January 2019.
  • Read Now

About The Author

Rembrand M. Koning

Strategy
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • March 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Thinx, Inc.—Breaking Barriers in Feminine Care

    By: Rembrand Koning
    • March 2022
    • Faculty Research

    mPharma (A) and (B)

    By: Rembrand Koning and Namrata Arora
    • June 18, 2021
    • Science

    Who Do We Invent for? Patents by Women Focus More on Women's Health, but Few Women Get to Invent

    By: Rembrand Koning, Sampsa Samila and John-Paul Ferguson
More from the Authors
  • Thinx, Inc.—Breaking Barriers in Feminine Care By: Rembrand Koning
  • mPharma (A) and (B) By: Rembrand Koning and Namrata Arora
  • Who Do We Invent for? Patents by Women Focus More on Women's Health, but Few Women Get to Invent By: Rembrand Koning, Sampsa Samila and John-Paul Ferguson
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College