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Are men and women-economists evenly distributed across research fields? Some new empirical evidence

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  • Juan Dolado
  • Florentino Felgueroso
  • Miguel Almunia

Abstract

This paper analyzes the gender distribution of research fields in economics based on a new dataset of almost 1,900 researchers affiliated to top-50 economics departments in 2005, as ranked by Econphd.net website. We document that women are unevenly distributed across fields and test some behavioral implications from theories underlying such disparities. Our main findings are that the probability that a woman works on a given field is positively related to the share of women already working on that field (path-dependence), and that this phenomenon is better explained by women avoiding male-dominated fields than by men avoiding female dominated fields. This pattern, however, is weaker for younger female researchers who spread more evenly across fields. Copyright The Author(s) 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Dolado & Florentino Felgueroso & Miguel Almunia, 2012. "Are men and women-economists evenly distributed across research fields? Some new empirical evidence," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 3(3), pages 367-393, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:series:v:3:y:2012:i:3:p:367-393
    DOI: 10.1007/s13209-011-0065-4
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Men and women-economists; Research fields; Gender segregation; Path-dependence; Multinomial logit models; A11; J16; J70;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General

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