Purpose-Seeking Workers Polarize Firms

A formal assignment model shows firms can boost profits by adopting technologies and jobs that strongly match workers with extreme non‑pecuniary preferences (purpose, sustainability, politics, working conditions). This equilibrium predicts polarized firms and sectors with higher profits, lower average wages, and a smaller labor share; sustainable investing further amplifies the polarization. — It explains how cultural polarization transmits into firm strategy and labor outcomes, reframing ESG and corporate political stances as profit‑seeking responses with distributional costs.