Ep.36 – Letian Zhang on M&A and Workplace Equality

Letian Zhang, assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast to discuss his working paper Shaking Things Up: Unintended Consequences of Firm Acquisitions on Racial and Gender Inequality. In this paper, Zhang uses EEOC data to examine the effects of mergers on racial and gender equality in acquired companies. He finds that although mergers may exacerbate inequality between high-skill and low-skill workers, they are associated with reductions in racial and gender inequality. This episode is hosted by Andrew Jennings, a teaching fellow and lecturer in law at Stanford Law School.