Seminar in Microeconomics - Jason Sockin (IZA Berlin)

Following the Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson, which overturned the federal right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade, hundreds of employers announced policies covering out-of-state travel for abortions and related care. Leveraging data from Indeed and Glassdoor, we examine the causal impact such announcements had on recruitment and job satisfaction. Based on job seekers' revealed preferences, we introduce a methodology to uncover, for each announcing firm, a comparison set of competing, non-announcing firms. For companies that announced, difference-in-differences estimates reveal their vacancies received more interest, particularly in Democratic-leaning states and female-dominated jobs where abortion was outlawed, but satisfaction amongst existing employees fell, particularly in male-dominated jobs. Smaller companies with less established reputations experienced the largest effects. Our results highlight the complicated trade-off employers face from engaging in sociopolitical speech, in particular how such signals of company culture can attract new workers but alienate current ones.