nep-gen New Economics Papers
on Gender
Issue of 2016‒12‒04
eight papers chosen by
Jan Sauermann
Stockholms universitet

  1. Antisocial Attitudes, Gender and Moral Judgments: An Experimental Study By Juergen Bracht; Adam Zylbersztejn
  2. What if women earned more than their spouse? An experimental investigation of work division in couples By Francois Cochard; Hélène Couprie; Astrid Hopfensitz
  3. Gender and cooperative preferences on five continents By Furtner, Nadja C.; Kocher, Martin G.; Martinsson, Peter; Matzat, Dominik; Wollbrant, Conny
  4. Gender dimensions on farmers’ preferences for direct-seeded rice with drum seeder in India: By Khan, Md. Tajuddin; Kishore, Avinash; Joshi, Pramod Kumar
  5. Appointements to central bank boards : does gender matter ? By Patricia Charléty; Davide Romelli; Estefania Santacreu-Vasut
  6. Women on Board and Performance of Family Firms: Evidence from India By Jayati Sarkar; Ekta Selarka
  7. Female Headed Households and Poverty: Analysis using Household level data By Priyanka Julka; Sukanya Das
  8. Sustaining Impacts When Transfers End: Women Leaders, Aspirations, and Investment in Children By Karen Macours; Renos Vakis

  1. By: Juergen Bracht (University of Aberdeen [Aberdeen] - University of Aberdeen); Adam Zylbersztejn (GATE - Groupe d'analyse et de théorie économique - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
    Abstract: We study questionnaire responses to moral dilemmas hypothetical situations in which sacrificing one life may save many other lives. We demonstrate gender differences in moral judgments: male participants are more supportive of the sacrifice than female participants. We investigate the importance of the previously studied source of the endorsement of the sacrfice: antisocial attitudes. First, we elicit the individual proneness to spiteful behavior using an incentivized experimental game. We demonstrate that spitefulness can be sizable but it is not associated with gender. Second, we find that gender is associated with moral judgments even when we account for individual differences in antisocial attitudes. Our results suggest that the performance of many institutions (related to the distribution of wealth or punishment, for instance) may be affected by the gender of the decision-makers. Abstract We study questionnaire responses to moral dilemmas hypothetical situations in which sacric-ing one life may save many other lives. We demonstrate gender dierences in moral judgments: male participants are more supportive of the sacrice than female participants. We investigate the importance of the previously studied source of the endorsement of the sacrice: antisocial attitudes. First, we elicit the individual proneness to spiteful behavior using an incentivized experimental game. We demonstrate that spitefulness can be sizable but it is not associated with gender. Second, we nd that gender is associated with moral judgments even when we account for individual dierences in antisocial attitudes. Our results suggest that the performance of many institutions (related to the distribution of wealth or punishment, for instance) may be aected by the gender of the decision-makers.
    Keywords: gender,moral dilemmas,moral judgments,spite,antisocial attitudes,experiment
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-01382464&r=gen
  2. By: Francois Cochard (CRESE - Centre de REcherches sur les Stratégies Economiques - UFC - UFC - Université de Franche-Comté, UBFC - Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté); Hélène Couprie (THEMA - Théorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications - Université de Cergy Pontoise); Astrid Hopfensitz (TSE - Toulouse School of Economics - Toulouse School of Economics)
    Abstract: Female specialization on household work and male specialization on labor-market work is a widely observed phenomenon across time and countries. Gender differences regarding characteristics (preferences, productivity) and context (wage rates, social norms) are generally recognized to explain this fact. We experimentally investigate work division by true co-habiting couples participating in a newly developed specialization task. Efficiency in this task comes at the cost of inequality, giving higher earnings to the “advantaged” player. We compare behavior when men (or women) are in the advantaged position, which correspond to the traditional (or power) couple case where he (or she) earns more. We show that women do not contribute more than men to the household public good whatever the situation. This result allows us to rule-out some of the standard explanations of the work division puzzle.
    Keywords: Experiment on couples, Time allocation, Work division
    Date: 2015–07–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01376912&r=gen
  3. By: Furtner, Nadja C.; Kocher, Martin G.; Martinsson, Peter; Matzat, Dominik; Wollbrant, Conny
    Abstract: Evidence of gender differences in cooperation in social dilemmas is inconclusive. This paper experimentally elicits unconditional contributions, a contribution vector (cooperative preferences), and beliefs about the level of others’ contributions in variants of the public goods game. We show that existing inconclusive results can be understood and completely explained when controlling for beliefs and underlying cooperative preferences. Robustness checks based on data from around 450 additional independent observations around the world confirm our main empirical results: Women are significantly more often classified as conditionally cooperative than men, while men are more likely to be free riders. Beliefs play an important role in shaping unconditional contributions, and they seem to be more malleable or sensitive to subtle cues for women than for men.
    Keywords: Public goods; conditional cooperation; gender; experiment
    JEL: C91 D64 H41
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lmu:muenec:30226&r=gen
  4. By: Khan, Md. Tajuddin; Kishore, Avinash; Joshi, Pramod Kumar
    Abstract: This study measures the willingness of male and female farmers to pay for climate-smart technology in rice. Rice is the most important crop in India in terms ofarea, production,and consumption. It is also the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions among all crops. Direct-seeded rice (DSR)with drum seeder, a climate-smart technology, requires less labor and water and is more climate friendly than transplanted rice; yet,its adoption is slow in India. Theauthors of this studycarried out a discrete choice experiment with 666 farmers from the Palghar and Thane districts of Maharashtra to measure their willingness to pay for drum seeders—a key piece of equipment for adopting DSR. Both male and female farmers were surveyed to capture the heterogeneity in their valuation of the key attributes of drumseeders. Although both male and female farmers prefer cheaper drum seeders, the marginal valuation of different attributes of the drum seeder varies by the farmers’ gender. The authors also used the Women Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI), developed by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), to collect self-reported data on the role and say of women in agriculture. The respective gender roles in the family and on the farm seem to explain some of this difference. Men have a greater say over how the family spends the cash. Accordingly, men tend to have a higher willingness to pay for attributes that increase income (increase in yield) or reduce cash costs (reduction in the seedrate). Women contribute a large share of the labor for transplanting rice, much of whichis unpaid work on family farms. Not surprisingly, therefore, women seem to value labor saving significantly more than their male counterparts. Further, theWEAI data show that although men in the family have more say, women do have an influence on decisions regarding crop production and the adoption of new technologies,to an extent. Therefore, to enhance the adoption of drum seeders, the product designers and extension workers should also target women
    Keywords: gender, rice, willingness to pay, women, sowing methods, technology adoption,
    Date: 2016
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1550&r=gen
  5. By: Patricia Charléty (Essec Business School, THEMA - Théorie économique, modélisation et applications - Université de Cergy Pontoise - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Davide Romelli (Trinity College Dublin [Dublin]); Estefania Santacreu-Vasut (Essec Business School)
    Abstract: This paper provides the fi rst systematic analysis of the evolution of female and male appointments to central bank boards. We build a novel and unique dataset that tracks appointments and replacements in a balanced panel of 26 OECD central bank boards from 2003 to 2015. We find that the likelihood of appointing a female is higher when a female rather than a male is being replaced and lower when the percentage of women on the board is already high.
    Keywords: Boards,Central Banks,Financial Crisis,Gender,Governance
    Date: 2016–09–15
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01386422&r=gen
  6. By: Jayati Sarkar (Madras School of Economics); Ekta Selarka (Assistant Professor, Madras School of Economics)
    Abstract: This paper provides evidence on the effect of women directors on the performance of family firms with a case study of India. Existing literature on the subject has primarily focused on widely held firms, notably in the US. Given that ownership structure and governance environment of family firms are distinctly different from those of non-family firms, the evidence on the relationship between women on board and firm performance in the context of widely held firms may not apply in the context of family firms. India provides an ideal setting for analyzing this question as the presence of family firms is pervasive and since 2013 India has instituted gender quotas on corporate boards. Using a data-set of 10218 firm year observations over a ten year period from 2005 to 2014 which spans the pre-quota and post-quota years, we find robust evidence that women directors on corporate boards positively impact firm value and that this effect increases with the number of women directors on board. However, we find that the positive effect of gender diversity on firm performance weakens with the extent to which the family exerts control through occupying key management positions on the board. In addition, women directors affiliated to the family have no significant effect on firm value, whereas - independent women directors do. Our results with respect to profitability are somewhat different; while as in the case of market value, women directors positively impact profitability with the positive effect driven by independent women directors, the effect does not vary with the extent of family control. Taken together, our results suggest that though gender diversity on corporate boards may positively impact firm performance in family firms in general, the extent of family control can have a significant bearing on this relationship. The findings from this study could be instructive for emerging economies like India in promoting gender-based quotas on corporate boards.
    Keywords: Board of Directors, gender diversity, promoter control, ownership, regulationClassification-JEL: G32, G34, G38
    Date: 2015–10
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mad:wpaper:2015-130&r=gen
  7. By: Priyanka Julka (Madras School of Economics); Sukanya Das (Madras School of Economics)
    Abstract: The relationship between gender and poverty is a complex and debatable topic more than ever and thus a potential area for policy makers to focus. The aim of this paper is to review existing literature and find evidence on linkages of whether gender affects poverty in two agro-biodiversity hotspots- two study sites -Tamil Nadu and Odisha, having different socio-economic setup. It tries to address the research question of whether female - headed households are poorest of the poor. The results depicts that gender has a significant impact on poverty in Tamil Nadu leaving further scope for research.
    Keywords: Feminization of Poverty, Household Headship, Gender Poverty, Tamil Nadu,OdishaClassification-JEL: I30, I32, I39
    Date: 2015–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mad:wpaper:2015-133&r=gen
  8. By: Karen Macours; Renos Vakis
    Abstract: Numerous evaluations show that conditional cash transfer programs change households’ investments in their young children, but there are many open questions about how such changes can be sustained after transfers end. This paper analyzes the role of social interactions with local female leaders for sustaining program impacts. The social interactions are identified through the randomized assignment of leaders and other beneficiaries to different cash transfer packages. Random exposure to leaders that received the largest package was found to augment short-term program impacts on households’ investments in education and nutrition, and to affect households’ attitudes towards the future during the intervention. This paper shows that the strong social multiplier effects from leaders’ treatment persisted two years after the end of the program. Households randomly exposed to female leaders with the largest package sustained higher investments in their children and reported higher expectations and aspirations for the future of their children. These results suggest that program design features that enhance ownership of a program’s objectives by local leaders may shift other beneficiaries’ norms and sustain higher levels of human capital investments.
    JEL: I15 I25 O12 O15
    Date: 2016–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22871&r=gen

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