We've Got You Covered: Employer and Employee Responses to Dobbs v. Jackson

70 Pages Posted: 15 Aug 2023 Last revised: 8 Jan 2024

See all articles by Pawel Adrjan

Pawel Adrjan

Indeed.com; University of Oxford, Regent's Park College

Svenja Gudell

Indeed.com

Emily Nix

University of Southern California - Marshall School of Business - Finance and Business Economics Department

Allison Shrivastava

Indeed.com

Jason Sockin

Cornell University, Ithaca, New York; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Evan Starr

University of Maryland - Robert H. Smith School of Business

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: January 8, 2024

Abstract

Amidst rising political polarization, firms engage more frequently with political issues through public statements and policies. This paper examines how firms' stances on polarizing issues impact worker sorting, leveraging announcements from hundreds of employers following the Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson overturning federal abortion rights. We introduce a new methodology to uncover labor market competitors for each announcing firm based on job seekers' revealed preferences. While announcing firms received more applications from job seekers, particularly in Democratic-leaning states and female-dominated jobs where abortion was outlawed, employee satisfaction declined, particularly among male-dominated jobs. Smaller companies with less-established reputations experienced the largest effects. A firm's political reputation thus impacts its ability to hire and retain workers. When deciding whether to engage in sociopolitical speech, firms face a complicated trade-off: attract culturally-aligned workers at the expense of alienating current ones.

Keywords: Job search, gender, politics, abortion, culture, job satisfaction

JEL Classification: M14, J13, J16

Suggested Citation

Adrjan, Pawel and Gudell, Svenja and Nix, Emily and Shrivastava, Allison and Sockin, Jason and Starr, Evan, We've Got You Covered: Employer and Employee Responses to Dobbs v. Jackson (January 8, 2024). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4531372 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4531372

Pawel Adrjan

Indeed.com ( email )

University of Oxford, Regent's Park College ( email )

Mansfield Road
Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 4AU
United Kingdom

Svenja Gudell

Indeed.com ( email )

Emily Nix

University of Southern California - Marshall School of Business - Finance and Business Economics Department ( email )

Marshall School of Business
Los Angeles, CA 90089
United States

Allison Shrivastava

Indeed.com ( email )

Jason Sockin (Contact Author)

Cornell University, Ithaca, New York ( email )

309 Ives Hall
Ithaca, NY Tompkins County 14853
United States

IZA Institute of Labor Economics ( email )

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Evan Starr

University of Maryland - Robert H. Smith School of Business ( email )

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