Gender Differences within the Firm: Evidence from Two Million Travelers

We document gender differences in the behavior of similar workers within a firm when they book business air travel. We show that women pay consistently less per ticket than men, after accounting for a large set of covariates that include the characteristics of the traveler, the routes and class they travel on, the firms that employ them, and the position that the traveler holds in the firm. A large proportion of the lower fares paid by women is explained by women booking flights earlier than men. We find significant variation in gender differences across the regions of the world. Using country-level data on preference differences, we show that gender differences in both positive and negative reciprocity are an important factor associated with the documented gender differences. In particular, negative reciprocity alone is able to explain the gender difference in paid fare: women (men) are less (more) willing to trade the firms’ money for their own utility when they feel they have been treated unfairly. The documented gender differences have both important monetary implications for firms and implications for the role of morale within the firm.