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on Gender |
| By: | Andrej Angelovski; Jordi Brandts; Werner Güth |
| Abstract: | We model the competitive striving for high-level positions in firms by letting experimental participants compete in bidding for prizes of different sizes in a hierarchy. Our set-up includes both a flat hierarchy and a steep hierarchy. We mainly focus on whether men and women behave differently with respect to bidding for higher and lower positions, but also consider other possible sources of heterogeneity in behavior. On average, women bid higher than men, but not significantly so, except for the top position of the flat hierarchy. For lower positions, bids are generally close to optimal bidding whereas they are relatively lower for higher positions. Women do win the top positions significantly more often, but there are no significant gender differences in earnings, the difference between prizes and bids. Our results suggest that the strong gender differences in attitudes towards competition that were found in numerous previous studies based on competition in tournaments with real-effort tasks may be specific to that environment. An implication of our results thus is that a particular phenomenon should be studied using more than one experimental design. |
| Keywords: | experiments, gender differences, competition |
| JEL: | C91 J16 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bge:wpaper:1185&r=all |
| By: | Bryson, Alex (University College London); Joshi, Heather (University College London); Wielgoszewska, Bożena (University College London); Wilkinson, David (University College London) |
| Abstract: | After shrinking dramatically during World War Two the gender wage gap (GWG) narrowed again in the early 1970s due to the Equal Pay Act. The GWG has closed across birth cohorts at all points in the adult life-cycle but remains. Within birth cohort it rises to middle age before falling again. Among those born in 1958, the raw GWG was 16 percentage points among workers aged 23, rising to 35 percentage points at 42. Among those born in 1970 the gaps were 9 and 31 percentage points at age 26 and age 42 respectively. Differences in men's and women's work experience in mid-life account for much but not all of the raw gap in both cohorts. The GWG is a little larger early in the life cycle when accounting for non-random selection into employment but selection plays no role later in life. Policy options for closing the remaining gap are considered. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap, labour force participation, birth cohorts, employment selection, sample attrition |
| JEL: | J16 J2 J3 |
| Date: | 2020–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13289&r=all |
| By: | Sophie Clot (Department of Economics, University of Reading); Marina Della Giusta (Department of Economics, University of Reading); Giovanni Razzu (Department of Economics, University of Reading) |
| Abstract: | We use a controlled experiment widely adopted in the literature to assess the extent of gender differences in attitudes towards competition in a sample of UK professionals working in two different companies. We find no gender differences in attitudes towards competition nor in performance under a competitive reward scheme. This results qualifies the findings of a large number of experimental studies that show that women are more likely than men to shy away from competition. We also find that, in our sample of professionals, women’s performance under competitive schemes does not decline. We conclude that it is important to avoid generalisations on the presence of gender gaps in attitudes towards competition. This being the first field study with professional workers in relatively competitive sectors, we think more needs to be carried out. |
| Keywords: | Gender, competition, field experiment |
| JEL: | C93 J16 J71 |
| Date: | 2020–06–15 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:rdg:emxxdp:em-dp2020-15&r=all |
| By: | Amano-Patiño, N.; Faraglia, E.; Giannitsarou, C; Hasna, Z. |
| Abstract: | The current lock-down measures are expected to disproportionately reduce women's labor productivity in the short run. This paper analyzes the effects of these measures on economists' research productivity. We explore the patterns of working papers publications using data from the NBER Working Papers Series, the CEPR Discussion Paper Series, the newly established research repository Covid Economics: Vetted and Real Time Papers and VoxEU columns. Our analysis suggests that although the relative number of female authors in non-pandemic related research has remained stable with respect to recent years (at around 20%), women constitute only 12% of total number of authors working on COVID-19 research. Moreover, we see that it is primarily senior economists who are contributing to this new area. Mid-career and junior economists record the biggest gap between non-COVID and COVID research, and the gender di erences are particularly stark at the mid-career level. Mid-career female economists have not yet started working on this new research area: only 12 mid-career female authors have contributed to COVID-19 related research so far, out of a total of 647 distinct authors in our dataset of papers (NBER, CEPR and CEPR Covid Economics). |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, Economics Research, Gender Inequality |
| Date: | 2020–05–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cam:camdae:2038&r=all |
| By: | Lewandowski, Piotr (Institute for Structural Research (IBS)); Lipowska, Katarzyna (Institute for Structural Research (IBS)); Magda, Iga (Warsaw School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | We study the gender dimension of occupational exposure to contagious diseases spread by the respiratory or close-contact route. We show that in Europe, women are more exposed to contagion, as they are more likely than men to work in occupations that require contact with diseases, frequent contact with clients, and high levels of physical proximity at work. Women are also more likely than men to be unable to work from home, which contributes to their increased exposure. Gender is a more important factor in workers' exposure to contagion than their education or age. This gender difference in exposure can be largely attributed to patterns of sectoral segregation, and to the segregation of women within sectors into occupations that require more interpersonal interactions. While workers in Southern European countries are the most exposed to contagion, the gender differences in exposure are greatest in the Nordic and Continental European countries. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, contagion, exposure to disease, gender, occupations, working from home |
| JEL: | J01 I10 J44 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13336&r=all |
| By: | Vincenzo Galasso (Università Bocconi); Vincent Pons (Harvard Business School); Paola Profeta (Università Bocconi); null null (Toulouse School of Economics (TSE)); Sylvain Brouard (Centre de recherches politiques de Sciences Po); Martial Foucault (Centre de recherches politiques de Sciences Po) |
| Abstract: | Using original data from two waves of a survey conducted in March and April 2020 in eight OECD countries (N = 21,649), we show that women are more likely to see COVID-19 as a very serious health problem, to agree with restraining public policy measures adopted in response to it, and to comply with them. Gender differences in attitudes and behavior are substantial in all countries, robust to controlling for a large set of sociodemographic, employment, psychological, and behavioral factors, and only partially mitigated for individuals who cohabit or have direct exposure to COVID-19. The results are not driven by differential social desirability bias. They carry important implications for the spread of the pandemic and may contribute to explain gender differences in vulnerability to it. |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/30j8b527qi94hpffbv52bsav72&r=all |
| By: | Demirel, Merve (Bilkent University); Okten, Cagla (Bilkent University) |
| Abstract: | We analyze the impact of an increase in compulsory schooling policy on the gender gap in intergenerational educational persistence using the Turkish Adult Education Survey (2012). Prior to the reform there is a gender gap in the association of parents' educational attainment with their offspring's. Daughters exhibit more intergenerational persistence than sons. We show that the education reform that increased compulsory schooling from 5 to 8 years, exposed children born after 1986 to 3 more years of schooling and reduced the effect of parental education on the completion probability of new compulsory schooling (8 years) from 30% to 1% percentage points for sons and from 49% to 11% percentage points for daughters, while the effect of parental education on post-compulsory schooling outcomes of sons and daughters decreased by 12 and 13 percentage points, respectively. The gender gap in intergenerational education transmission has decreased by 8 percentage points in the completion of new compulsory schooling level but remains unchanged at the post-compulsory schooling level after the reform. |
| Keywords: | intergenerational education transmission, gender equality, compulsory schooling |
| JEL: | I20 I24 J16 J62 |
| Date: | 2020–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13362&r=all |
| By: | Giulietti, Corrado; Vlassopoulos, Michael; Zenou, Yves |
| Abstract: | We provide first evidence that peer depression in adolescence affects own depression in adulthood. We use data from Add Health and an identification strategy that relies on within-school and across-cohort idiosyncratic variation in the share of own-gender peers who are depressed. We find a significant peer effect for females but not for males. An increase of one standard deviation of the share of own-gender peers (schoolmates) who are depressed increases the probability of depression in adulthood by 2.6 percentage points for females (or 11.5% of mean depression). We also find that the peer effect is already present in the short term when girls are still in school and provide evidence for why it persists over time. Further analysis reveals that individuals from families with a lower socioeconomic background are more susceptible to peer influence, thereby suggesting that family can function as a buffer. Our findings underscore the importance of peer relationships in adolescence with regard to the development of long-lasting depression in women. |
| Keywords: | adolescence; Causal peer effects; Depression; Gender |
| JEL: | I12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2020–04 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14681&r=all |