Elena Pisanelli (European University Institute) has posted A New Turning Point for Women: Artificial Intelligence as a Tool for Reducing Gender Discrimination in Hiring on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This paper studies whether firms’ adoption of AI has a causal effect on their probability of hiring female managers, using data on the 500 largest firms by revenues in Europe and the US, and a staggered difference-in-differences approach. I find that, despite the concerns that the existing literature prompts about AI fairness, firms’ use of AI cause, on average, an increase by 2 percentage points — corresponding in relative terms to an effect of 40% — in the hiring of female managers. This result is driven by the use of screening AI, while the effect of predictive AI cannot be claimed statistically different from zero. This result is best explained by AI leading to a reduction in gender discrimination in hiring. In fact, I find firms’ use of AI to be correlated with a reduction in gender discrimination lawsuits.