Analysis of a global survey of 21,980 firms from 91 countries suggests that the presence of women in corporate leadership positions may improve firm performance. This correlation could reflect either the payoff to nondiscrimination or the fact that women increase a firm's skill diversity. Women's presence in corporate leadership is positively correlated with firm characteristics such as size as well as national characteristics such as girls' math scores, the absence of discriminatory attitudes toward female executives, and the availability of paternal leave. The results find no impact of board gender quotas on firm performance, but they suggest that the payoffs of policies that facilitate women rising through the corporate ranks more broadly could be significant.

Th is paper estimates the adjustment costs of the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership (TPP) on workers and compares these costs with the agreement's benefi ts. It also estimates the TPP's impact on the distribution of income across US households. Between 2017 and 2026, when most of the adjustment to the TPP occurs, the costs to workers who will be displaced, both from unemployment and lower future wages, will amount to about 6 percent of the agreement's benefi ts. For the full adjustment period (2017-30) that Peter Petri and Michael Plummer (2016) consider, the benefi ts are more than 100 times the costs. Th e benefi ts from the agreement will be widely shared. Th e percentage gains for labor income from the TPP will be slightly greater than the gains to capital income. Households in all quintiles will benefi t by similar percentages, but once diff erences in spending shares are taken into account, the percentage gains to poor and middle-class households will be slightly larger than the gains to households at the top. Th us the agreement will confer net benefi ts to households at all levels of income and will certainly not worsen income inequality. While the United States as a whole would benefi t from the TPP, there is a case for an assistance program that would compensate those who lose.

The Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS), created in 1992 and directed by Professor Brigid Laffan, aims to develop inter-disciplinary and comparative research and to promote work on the major issues facing the process of integration and European society. The Centre is home to a large post-doctoral programme and hosts major research programmes and projects, and a range of working groups and ad hoc initiatives. The research agenda is organised around a set of core themes and is continuously evolving, reflecting the changing agenda of European integration and the expanding membership of the European Union.

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