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Do quotas help women to climb the career ladder? A laboratory experiment

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  • Maggian, Valeria
  • Montinari, Natalia
  • Nicolò, Antonio

Abstract

Women are less likely to enroll in selective or scientific courses, applying for promotions and are particularly underrepresented in both middle and top positions in the STEM field. Quota are often advocated as an instrument to reduce this gender gap, but it remains unclear at what step of the career ladder they more effectively foster women's reaching the top. Many factors may affect quota's success or failure, such as how they would in turn affect teamwork and trust between members within organizations or coordination in applying for promotions. In this paper, by means of a laboratory experiment implementing a two-stage tournament, we evaluate the impact of three different interventions in affecting individual decision to climb the career ladder, abstracting away from other possible confounding factors. We find that, compared with no intervention, a gender quota introduced in the initial stage of competition was ineffective in encouraging women to compete for the top; quotas introduced in the final stage of competition or at both stages increased women's willingness to compete for the top, without distorting the performance of the winners.

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  • Maggian, Valeria & Montinari, Natalia & Nicolò, Antonio, 2020. "Do quotas help women to climb the career ladder? A laboratory experiment," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:123:y:2020:i:c:s0014292120300222
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2020.103390
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    1. Catherine Eckel & Lata Gangadharan & Philip J. Grossman & Nina Xue, 2021. "The gender leadership gap: insights from experiments," Chapters, in: Ananish Chaudhuri (ed.), A Research Agenda for Experimental Economics, chapter 7, pages 137-162, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Demid Getik & Marco Islam & Margaret Samahita, 2021. "The Inelastic Demand for Affirmative Action," Working Papers 202112, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    3. José J. Domínguez, 2021. "The Effectiveness of Committee Quotas; The Role of Group Dynamics," ThE Papers 21/12, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..
    4. Eszter Czibor & Silvia Dominguez Martinez, 2019. "Never too Late: Gender Quotas in the Final Round of a Multistage Tournament," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 319-363.
    5. Getik, Demid & Islam, Marco & Samahita, Margaret, 2021. "The Inelastic Demand for Affirmative Action," Working Papers 2021:7, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    6. Fernandes, Mario & Hilber, Simon & Sturm, Jan-Egbert & Walter, Andreas, 2023. "Closing the gender gap in academia? Evidence from an affirmative action program," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(9).
    7. Ou, Kai & Pan, Xiaofei, 2021. "The effect of task choice and task assignment on the gender earnings gap: An experimental study," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    8. Schoonjans, Eline & Hottenrott, Hanna & Buchwald, Achim, 2023. "Welcome on board? Appointment dynamics of women as directors," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-005, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    9. Subhasish M. Chowdhury & Patricia Esteve‐González & Anwesha Mukherjee, 2023. "Heterogeneity, leveling the playing field, and affirmative action in contests," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(3), pages 924-974, January.
    10. Domínguez, José J., 2023. "Diversified committees in hiring processes: Lab evidence on group dynamics," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    11. José J. Domínguez & Natalia Montinari, 2021. "Gender Quotas and Task Assignment in Organizations," ThE Papers 21/13, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..
    12. Eline Schoonjans & Hanna Hottenrott & Achim Buchwald, 2024. "Welcome on Board? Appointment Dynamics of Women as Directors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 192(3), pages 561-589, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Affirmative action; Competition; Multi-stage tournament; Gender gap; Laboratory experiments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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