Gender Differences: Lessons from Behavioral Economics in the Lab and in the Field
Paper Session
Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM (EST)
- Chair: Muriel Niederle, Stanford University
The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion
Abstract
In applications, interviews, performance reviews, and many other environments, individuals subjectively describe their ability and performance to others. We run a series of experiments, involving over 4,000 participants from online labor markets and over 10,000 school-aged youth. We find a large gender gap in self-promotion: Women subjectively describe their ability and performance to potential employers less favorably than equally performing men. Even when all incentives to promote are removed, however, the gender gap remains. The gender gap in self-promotion is reflective of an underlying gender gap in how individuals subjectively evaluate their own performance. This underlying gender gap proves persistent and arises as early as the sixth grade.Trickle Down Effects of Affirmative Action: A Case Study in France
Abstract
We study chess, an activity where we have access to the universe of partic- ipants, a universal and quite accurate measure of performance ability, and where an affirmative action quota has been implemented on the elite level, the French club championship, several decades ago. We find that on the club championship level women perform better over time, to a degree that they outperform more and more men. Furthermore, the quota effects trickle- down on the national level with female players becoming more prevalent, especially at the non-youth level. Both, the increase in representation, as well as the performance gains of female players in France are not due to time trends, since they are not reflected in other EU15 countries. Finally, the gains of women do not appear to come at the cost of men. We end with a discussion on how the findings in chess can apply to other environments.Deconstructing the Placement Gender Gap: Performance versus Preferences
Abstract
When good primary and secondary education is free, and at the universitylevel, is heavily subsidized, and admissions are transparent and performance
based, one might expect there to be little gender bias in placement at the
university level. Yet, the college major choice decisions of students vary
considerably by gender. Using Turkish data, we examine what lies behind
these differences. Two channels seem to dominate: performance differences by
gender and differences in preferences across majors. We then estimate a
state of the art model of preferences and run counter-factual simulations to
evaluate the role of these two channels on the placement gender gap.
Finally, we show that policy measures, such as giving women preference in
STEM subjects, will not work as well as expected and show that more directed
policies are needed.
JEL Classifications
- C9 - Design of Experiments
- J1 - Demographic Economics