Diversity, Social Goods Provision, and Performance in the Firm
The last decade has seen a growing interest among economists on the effect of diversity on the provision of social goods and the stock of social capital. Indeed, in the workplace, cooperation, trust, and other social goods may be important elements of the smooth functioning of an office, but firm ow...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
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Cambridge, MA: Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2012
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/71538 |
| _version_ | 1826214458619330560 |
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| author | Ellison, Sara Greenbaum, Jeffrey |
| author_facet | Ellison, Sara Greenbaum, Jeffrey |
| author_sort | Ellison, Sara |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The last decade has seen a growing interest among economists on the effect of diversity on the provision of social goods and the stock of social capital. Indeed, in the workplace, cooperation, trust, and other social goods may be important elements of the smooth functioning of an office, but firm owners ultimately care about an office’s performance, as reflected in revenues, costs, and profits. We explore this next logical question: how does diversity affect ultimate performance? We have a unique data set from a firm which operates numerous small offices in the United States and abroad. They have provided us with eight years of individual-level employee survey data, which measure quantities such as level of cooperation, as well as office-level measures of diversity and performance over that period. We find some evidence that more homogeneous offices enjoy higher levels of social goods provision but that those offices do not perform any better and may actually perform worse. We speculate that one possible reason that the more homogeneous offices do not perform better despite higher levels of social goods provision is that they do not have as diverse a portfolio of skills, talents, and interests on which to draw. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:05:41Z |
| format | Working Paper |
| id | mit-1721.1/71538 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:05:41Z |
| publishDate | 2012 |
| publisher | Cambridge, MA: Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/715382019-04-12T21:03:36Z Diversity, Social Goods Provision, and Performance in the Firm Ellison, Sara Greenbaum, Jeffrey Diversity Social Goods The last decade has seen a growing interest among economists on the effect of diversity on the provision of social goods and the stock of social capital. Indeed, in the workplace, cooperation, trust, and other social goods may be important elements of the smooth functioning of an office, but firm owners ultimately care about an office’s performance, as reflected in revenues, costs, and profits. We explore this next logical question: how does diversity affect ultimate performance? We have a unique data set from a firm which operates numerous small offices in the United States and abroad. They have provided us with eight years of individual-level employee survey data, which measure quantities such as level of cooperation, as well as office-level measures of diversity and performance over that period. We find some evidence that more homogeneous offices enjoy higher levels of social goods provision but that those offices do not perform any better and may actually perform worse. We speculate that one possible reason that the more homogeneous offices do not perform better despite higher levels of social goods provision is that they do not have as diverse a portfolio of skills, talents, and interests on which to draw. 2012-07-05T23:04:03Z 2012-07-05T23:04:03Z 2010-08-31 Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/71538 Working paper, massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Economics;10-11 An error occurred on the license name. An error occurred getting the license - uri. application/pdf Cambridge, MA: Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| spellingShingle | Diversity Social Goods Ellison, Sara Greenbaum, Jeffrey Diversity, Social Goods Provision, and Performance in the Firm |
| title | Diversity, Social Goods Provision, and Performance in the Firm |
| title_full | Diversity, Social Goods Provision, and Performance in the Firm |
| title_fullStr | Diversity, Social Goods Provision, and Performance in the Firm |
| title_full_unstemmed | Diversity, Social Goods Provision, and Performance in the Firm |
| title_short | Diversity, Social Goods Provision, and Performance in the Firm |
| title_sort | diversity social goods provision and performance in the firm |
| topic | Diversity Social Goods |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/71538 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ellisonsara diversitysocialgoodsprovisionandperformanceinthefirm AT greenbaumjeffrey diversitysocialgoodsprovisionandperformanceinthefirm |