Special economic zones, gender and innovations: new evidence from an emerging economy

This paper examines how the gender of CEOs affect product and process innovations at the firm level, focusing on how SEZ features affect the gender-innovations nexus. The study employs data containing 328 firms from 2018 to 2021 and panel logit and treatment estimation models. The results show that female CEOs are more likely to lead registered SEZ firms and engage more in product and process innovations. Moreover, while female CEOs contribute positively to product and process innovations, female CEOs in registered SEZ firms and SEZ enclaves tend to have a higher and profound contribution to product and process innovations than their counterparts. These results suggest that national and corporate policymakers should develop and implement corporate and national level policies that (i) limits the glass ceiling barriers in order to propel the contribution of females to innovations and (ii) lower the bureaucratic and complex administrative procedures for operationalizing SEZ firms in order to harness the innovational-enhancing effects of gender inclusiveness.