Diversity to Foster Innovation: Using the Lens of Brazilian Microdata

Abstract

A variety of factors enable firms to innovate and eventually to improve their performance. The contribution of workforce diversity to innovation has been under-explored in empirical work. The main objective of this study was to highlight the relationship between innovation in the Brazilian private sector and workforce diversity by gender, age, and race. Using detailed firm-level data, including an employer-employee dataset, our results suggest that even though some costs are associated with workforce diversity, its benefits can offset them in most innovation outcomes.