The Falling Roe and Relocation of Skilled Women: Empirical Evidence from a Large Sample of Auditors

Our study examines the impact of women’s abortion rights protection on female auditors’ mobility. Exploiting the state-level adoption of Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws that restrict women’s access to abortion, we find that female auditors’ propensity to relocate to states without TRAP laws increases after the current state implements TRAP laws. This effect is stronger among female auditors located in areas with more liberal political ideology and weaker religious attachment. The relocation of female auditors leads to a higher turnover rate and a net loss of human capital at local audit offices, thereby impairing the local office’s audit quality. We further exploit data on 16.5 million skilled women in various occupations to confirm the external validity of our inference on ideology-driven labor mobility of skilled women.