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Manager Impartiality: Worker-Firm Matching and the Gender Wage Gap

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  • Lena E. Hensvik

Abstract

Using a rich matched employer-employee data set from Sweden, the author examines whether female managers in a firm narrow the gender pay gap. The study's main contribution is its ability to account for unobserved heterogeneity among both workers and firms that is potentially correlated with manager gender. The results show a substantial negative association between the representation of female managers and the establishment's gender wage gap. Estimates that account for sorting on unobserved worker skills, however, do not support the conclusion that managers favor same-sex workers in wage setting. Additional results show that organizations with more female managers recruit more nonmanagerial, high-wage women. Together these findings suggest that associations between manager gender and male-female wage gaps should be interpreted with caution, as worker sorting seems to be a crucial component behind this relationship.

Suggested Citation

  • Lena E. Hensvik, 2014. "Manager Impartiality: Worker-Firm Matching and the Gender Wage Gap," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(2), pages 395-421, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:67:y:2014:i:2:p:395-421
    DOI: 10.1177/001979391406700205
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    3. Vera Rocha & Mirjam van Praag, 2016. "How do Entrepreneurial Bosses influence their Employees' Future Entrepreneurship Choices?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 16-110/VII, Tinbergen Institute.
    4. Nikolaos Theodoropoulos & John Forth & Alex Bryson, 2019. "Are Women Doing It For Themselves? Gender Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap," DoQSS Working Papers 19-07, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    5. Bond, Timothy N. & Lehmann, Jee-Yeon K., 2018. "Prejudice and racial matches in employment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 271-293.
    6. Karin Halldén & Jenny Säve-Söderbergh & Asa Rosen, 2016. "Immediate Manager Gender and Female Wages - The Importance of Manager Position," CESifo Working Paper Series 5700, CESifo.
    7. Guido Cozzi & Noemi Mantovan & Robert M. Sauer, 2017. "Does it Pay to Work for Free? Negative Selection and the Wage Returns to Volunteer Experience," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(6), pages 1018-1045, December.
    8. Nikolaos Theodoropoulos & John Forth & Alex Bryson, 2022. "Are Women Doing It for Themselves? Female Managers and the Gender Wage Gap," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 84(6), pages 1329-1355, December.

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