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Tournaments with safeguards: A blessing or a curse for women?

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  • Bao, Zhengyang
  • Leibbrandt, Andreas

Abstract

Workplace tournaments are one likely contributor to gender differences in labor market outcomes. We investigate a competitive workplace environment that may produce more gender-neutral outcomes: tournaments with safeguards. In our experiment, participants take part in a tournament with a real-effort task and choose whether they want to have a complementary safeguard that guarantees a higher wage for the low ranked. As expected, we find that women are more likely than men to choose such a safeguard. However, obtaining a safeguard comes at a cost. On average, the safeguard causes lower performance, reduces women's relative performance, and creates a gender wage gap. Thus, we provide novel evidence that easing women into tournaments can backfire.

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  • Bao, Zhengyang & Leibbrandt, Andreas, 2024. "Tournaments with safeguards: A blessing or a curse for women?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 292-306.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:221:y:2024:i:c:p:292-306
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2023.07.022
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    1. Difang Huang & Zhengyang Bao, 2020. "Gender Differences in Reaction to Enforcement Mechanisms: A Large-Scale Natural Field Experiment," Monash Economics Working Papers 08-20, Monash University, Department of Economics.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender differences; Workplace tournaments; Incentive contracts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects

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