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on Gender |
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Issue of 2025–11–24
eight papers chosen by Jan Sauermann, Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Catherine C. Eckel (Texas A&M University); Lata Gangadharan (Monash University); Philip J. Grossman (Monash University); Miranda Lambert (Texas A&M University); Nina Xue (WU Vienna University of Economics and Business,) |
| Abstract: | Motivated by the stereotype that women are more cooperative and less competitive, we investigate how the institutional environment impacts the gender leadership gap. An experiment tests leaders’ impact on earnings under competitive (“winner take all”) versus cooperative (equal earnings distribution) incentive schemes. All leaders enhance efficiency similarly, but a gender gap emerges in the competitive context where women receive lower evaluations for identical advice. This bias disappears in the cooperative context where female leaders are evaluated 50% higher, suggesting that congruence between the environment and gender stereotypes has important policy implications. Men are more willing to lead, regardless of context. |
| Keywords: | gender, leadership, institutio |
| JEL: | C92 D91 J16 J71 M14 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2025-17 |
| By: | Geuke, Gemma G. M. (Utrecht University); Nivette, Amy (Utrecht University); van der Vegt, Isabelle W. J. (Utrecht University); Jaspers, Eva |
| Abstract: | Research shows that women leave male-dominated work settings more often than their male colleagues. In public services such as policing, disproportionate attrition of women slows improvement of gender equality, but can also affect legitimacy and service outcomes. Typically, attrition of women in policing is studied in isolation, while sources (and thus, solutions) of inequalities may lie in societal or broader organizational dynamics. Using monthly employment register data, this study compared attrition of Dutch female policing staff to those of their male counterparts and their peers in other public subsectors. Findings indicated that, while women were more likely to leave the Dutch policing sector than men, several other subsectors showed similar gender differences. Results suggest that approaches to improve gender equality, both in policing and in other ‘gender-typed’ subsectors, should not be limited to increasing representation and should involve reviewing implicit assumptions about employees, including procedures for appraisal. |
| Date: | 2025–11–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:cpxw4_v1 |
| By: | Sonia Falconieri; Marcelo Ortiz; Francisco Urzua; Paolo Volpin |
| Abstract: | Since Norway’s board gender reform in 2003, many European countries have introduced gender targets for the boards of listed firms. We examine how these regulations affected the gender of newly appointed chief executive officers (CEOs) in private firms. Using crosscountry and industry-level variation in exposure to the reform, we document an 8 to 13 percent increase in the number of appointments of female CEOs in industries with listed firms subject to the reforms, and no change in industries without such exposure. The effect is stronger in countries with mandatory quotas and where board appointments are more salient. The results indicate that board gender regulations generated positive spillover effects beyond the targeted listed firms, increasing the representation of women in top executive positions in private firms; however, they did not lead to a broader country-level cultural shift. |
| Keywords: | Board quotas, female CEOs, private firms |
| JEL: | G14 G34 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upf:upfgen:1926 |
| By: | Kamila Cygan-Rehm; Matthias Westphal |
| Abstract: | This paper replicates and extends the evidence on the lifetime effects of school starting age on earnings by Fredriksson and Öckert (2014) for Sweden. Using German data for individuals born between 1945 and 1965, we examine a more rigid system of ability tracking in secondary education, a potential driver of long-term effects. We confirm negligible effects of later school entry for men and positive effects for women. These gender differences arise despite similar effects on educational attainment. By unfolding the gender gaps over the lifecycle, assessing fertility decisions, and maternal employment around the first birth, we show that childbirth postponement and increased labor market attachment after the first birth seem to be plausible mechanisms. |
| Keywords: | school starting age, lifetime effects, education, gender gap |
| JEL: | I21 I24 I26 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12274 |
| By: | Alejandra Villegas (Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de Mexico) |
| Abstract: | This study examines how gender norms are enforced through social sanctions using an online experiment in the Sierra Nororiental of Puebla, Mexico. Combining norm elicitation tasks and a dictator game, it analyzes how participants react to norm compliance and deviation in the division of unpaid domestic labor. Results indicate that sanctioning behavior varies by the gender of both the evaluator and the norm violator, revealing a hierarchical and gendered enforcement structure. The study also identified a discrepancy between self-declared attitudes and behavioral responses: although many participants claimed to support gender equality, they penalized behaviors aligned with that position when those behaviors were perceived as norm violations. These insights have implications for policy interventions aimed at promoting gender equality, suggesting that effective change requires shifting the social expectations and sanctioning logics that underpin persistent inequalities.der board diversity is associated with a 0.75 percentage point rise in the labor share. The effect is stronger in services, in smaller firms, and among firms with persistently low productivity. A counterfactual analysis demonstrates a high semi-elasticity of employment as the driving mechanism behind these findings. |
| Keywords: | gender norms, social expectations, punishment, experimental economics, unpaid care and domestic work |
| JEL: | C91 J16 Z13 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fme:wpaper:110 |
| By: | C Mollier (EconomiX - EconomiX - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); A García-Gallego (Universitat Jaume I = Jaume I University); T Jaber-Lopez (CSIC - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas [España] = Spanish National Research Council [Spain]); S Zaccagni (Department of Economics and Business Economics [Aarhus] - Aarhus University [Aarhus]) |
| Abstract: | We investigate how competition outcomes and the opponent's gender affect the decision to compete again, using a lab experiment. Our experimental design adopts the strategy method to measure individuals' reactions to winning or losing. Subjects indicate their willingness to compete again based on performance gaps with their opponents. Furthermore, gender is inferred from participant-selected-names, allowing us to explore the role of the opponent's gender. Against our main hypothesis, after winning against a female opponent men exhibit a decrease in their willingness to compete again. The primary mechanism underlying men's behavior appears to be the presence of inaccurate beliefs—specifically, expecting to win but ultimately losing. Our main finding is that men with inaccurate beliefs, when competing against women, are significantly more likely to re-enter the competition and to outperform their female opponents in subsequent rounds. |
| Keywords: | Lab experiment, Career decision, Feedback, Gender, Competitiveness |
| Date: | 2025–11–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05358737 |
| By: | Egshiglen Batbayar; Christoph Breunig; Peter Haan; Boryana Ilieva |
| Abstract: | We propose a new approach to estimate selection-corrected quantiles of the gender wage gap. Our method employs instrumental variables that explain variation in the latent variable but, conditional on the latent process, do not directly affect selection. We provide semiparametric identification of the quantile parameters without imposing parametric restrictions on the selection probability, derive the asymptotic distribution of the proposed estimator based on constrained selection probability weighting, and demonstrate how the approach applies to the Roy model of labor supply. Using German administrative data, we analyze the distribution of the gender gap in full-time earnings. We find pronounced positive selection among women at the lower end, especially those with less education, which widens the gender gap in this segment, and strong positive selection among highly educated men at the top, which narrows the gender wage gap at upper quantiles. |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2511.16187 |
| By: | Rintaro Ando |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the impact of the 2022 Dobbs decision and subsequent state level abortion bans on the labor supply of young women (ages 18-24). Using monthly CPS micro data from January 2021 to December 2023, I exploit cross state variation in post Dobbs abortion policy and estimate Difference-in-Differences (DiD) and Triple-Difference (DDD) models. In a simple DiD comparing young women in ban versus protected states, labor force participation in ban states rises by 3.6 percentage points, while participation among young men in the same states falls by 2.9 percentage points, suggesting that the female response is unlikely to be driven by stronger local labor demand. The preferred DDD specification with state-by-month and gender interacted fixed effects implies a 6.6 percentage point increase in labor force participation for young women in ban states relative to young men. School enrollment does not change significantly, whereas employment increases by about 3 percentage points. These results suggest that abortion bans are associated with an immediate increase in young women's labor market attachment, potentially shifting their short run focus toward current earnings rather than human capital accumulation. |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2511.16120 |