Estimating Disparities
Understanding Labor Market Discrimination Against Transgender People: Evidence from a Double List Experiment and a Survey
Billur Aksoy, Christopher Carpenter & Dario Sansone
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using a double list experiment designed to elicit views free from social desirability bias, we find that support in the United States for transgender people in the labor market is significantly overreported by 8%-10%. After correcting for this overreporting, we still find that over two-thirds of respondents would be comfortable with a transgender manager and support employment nondiscrimination protection for transgender people. However, respondents severely underestimate this level of support. We also show that stated labor market support for transgender people is lower than support for gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. Our results advance our understanding of employment discrimination against transgender people.
Age and hiring for high school graduate Hispanics in the United States
Joanna Lahey & Roberto Mosquera
Journal of Population Economics, February 2024
Abstract:
The intersection of age with ethnicity is understudied, particularly for labor force outcomes. We explore the labor market for Hispanic high school graduates in the United States by age using information from the US Census, American Community Survey, Current Population Survey, and three laboratory experiments with different populations. We find that the differences in outcomes for Hispanic and non-Hispanic high school graduates do not change across the lifecycle. Moving to a laboratory setting, we provided participants with randomized resumes for a clerical position that are, on average, equivalent except for name and age. In all experiments, participants treated applicants with Hispanic and non-Hispanic names the same across the lifecycle. These findings are in stark contrast to the differences and patterns across the lifecycle for corresponding Black workers and job applicants. We argue that these null results may explain the much smaller literature on labor market discrimination against less-educated Hispanic workers.
A (dynamic) investigation of stereotypes, belief-updating, and behavior
Katherine Coffman, Maria Paola Ugalde Araya & Basit Zafar
Economic Inquiry, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using a controlled experiment, we study the dynamic effects of feedback on decision-making across verbal skills and math. Before feedback, men are more optimistic about their performance and more willing to compete than women, especially in math. While feedback shifts individuals' beliefs and behavior, we see substantial persistence of gender gaps 1 week later. This is particularly true among individuals who receive negative feedback. Our results are not well-explained by motivated reasoning; in fact, negative feedback is more likely to be recalled than positive feedback. Overall, our results highlight the challenges involved in overcoming gender gaps in dynamic settings.
Group Size and Its Impact on Diversity-Related Perceptions and Hiring Decisions in Homogeneous Groups
Aneesh Rai et al.
Organization Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Why do some homogeneous groups face backlash for lacking diversity, whereas others escape censure? We show that a homogeneous group’s size changes how it is perceived and whether decision makers pursue greater diversity in its ranks. We theorize that people make different inferences about larger groups than smaller ones -- with consequences for diversity management -- due to Bayesian reasoning. This can produce sensitivity to a lack of diversity in large groups and limited sensitivity to a lack of diversity in small groups. Because each group member represents the outcome of a hiring decision, larger homogeneous groups signal a diversity problem more strongly than smaller homogeneous groups. Across three preregistered experiments (n = 4,283), we show that decision makers are more likely to diversify larger homogeneous groups than smaller ones and view larger homogeneous groups as (i) more likely to have resulted from an unfair selection process; (ii) less diverse; (iii) more likely to face diversity-related impression management concerns; and (iv) less open to the influence of newly added underrepresented members. Further, (i)–(iii) mediate the relationship between homogeneous group size and decisions to diversify. We extend our findings to S&P 1500 corporate boards, showing that larger homogeneous boards are more likely to add women or racial minorities as directors. Larger homogeneous boards are also rarer than expected, whereas smaller homogeneous boards are surprisingly abundant. This suggests that decision makers neglect homogeneity in smaller groups, while investing extra effort toward diversifying larger homogeneous groups. Our findings highlight how group size shapes diversity-related perceptions and decisions and identify mechanisms that kickstart diversification efforts.
The Delegitimization of Women’s Claims of Ingroup-Directed Sexism
Kerry Spalding, Rebecca Schachtman & Cheryl Kaiser
Sex Roles, March 2024, Pages 444-457
Abstract:
Although women can experience sexism from other women (ingroup discrimination) and men (outgroup discrimination), those who claim to experience ingroup discrimination may suffer greater social costs than those who claim outgroup sexism. In three experiments (Study 1: N = 167; Study 2: N = 119; Study 3: N = 181), participants were randomly assigned to evaluate a woman’s claim of sexism that was perpetrated by a woman manager (ingroup discrimination) or man manager (outgroup discrimination). Women who claimed ingroup (vs. outgroup) discrimination (1) had their claims delegitimized more, (2) were perceived as greater complainers, but (3) were not perceived as less likeable (Studies 1–3). Claim of delegitimization (Studies 1–3) and violation of prototypes of discrimination (Study 3) mediated the effects of ingroup versus outgroup discrimination on perceptions of the employee as a complainer. These findings indicate that ingroup discrimination can be a pernicious barrier to women’s advancement in the workplace as these claims are viewed less seriously than more prototypical forms of outgroup discrimination.
Employers’ Neighborhoods and Racial Discrimination
Amanda Agan & Sonja Starr
Journal of Legal Studies, January 2024, Pages 115–158
Abstract:
Using a field experiment, we show that the racial composition of employers’ neighborhoods predicts discrimination patterns in a direction suggesting in-group bias. Second, building on prior work on ban-the-box laws, we show that employers in less-Black neighborhoods appear much likelier to stereotype Black applicants as potentially criminal when information about criminal records is restricted. Third, our data also show racial disparities in geographic proximity to job postings; simulations illustrate how these job-availability and discrimination patterns together shape disparities. When jobs are far from Black neighborhoods, Black applicants are doubly disadvantaged: discrimination patterns disfavor them, and they have fewer nearby opportunities.
Which Idea to Pursue? Gender Differences in Novelty Avoidance During Creative Idea Selection
Mengzi Jin & Roy Chua
Organization Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite women having made significant progress in the modern workforce, gender gaps are still evident in creative work. In this paper, we propose that, although women and men are equally capable of generating creative ideas, gender differences emerge during the idea-selection stage. Specifically, compared with men, women engage in higher novelty avoidance during idea selection -- the degree to which one selects an idea that is less novel than the most novel idea one has generated. In two laboratory studies and a field survey involving creative professionals, we found significant gender differences in novelty avoidance during idea selection and identified women’s concerns about social backlash when pursuing highly novel ideas as one explanatory variable. We also experimentally manipulated gender compositions of the evaluation panel and found that women’s novelty avoidance tendency during idea selection was reduced when they were informed about the presence of women evaluators. Finally, novelty avoidance during idea selection has an inverted U-shaped relationship with idea success; because women tend to engage in higher novelty avoidance than men, novelty avoidance in women (but not men) has a negative impact on the success of their ideas. By examining gender dynamics at specific stages, our work offers theoretical and practical insights regarding gender disparities in creative work.
On the cost of wearing white shorts in women's sport
Alex Krumer
Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, June 2024
Abstract:
The menstrual cycle and associated issues are still considered taboo in many societies, causing a lack of understanding and sub-optimal decision making. Sport can effectively promote awareness of social issues in general, including those concerning the menstrual cycle. One such issue is the anxiety arising from wearing white shorts. Despite increased awareness, still over half the teams participating in the recent 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup played in white shorts. In this study, I investigated women's and men's football games from the World Cups and the European Championships between 2002 and 2023. Using regression analysis, and after controlling for teams’ abilities and other factors, I found that women's teams wearing white shorts achieved between 0.32 and 0.37 fewer points per game. No such effect was observed among men. This result illustrates that a lack of understanding of period anxiety has an immediate cost that is very easy to avoid by simply not playing in white shorts. Most importantly, given that sport is an important vehicle of gender equality, increased awareness of period anxiety could result in higher participation of women in sports and, ultimately, in narrowing other gender gaps.
Does Gender Matter? Examining the Impact of Coach Gender on Team Success: Evidence from the NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament
Laura Beaudin & Aziz Berdiev
Eastern Economic Journal, April 2024, Pages 135–153
Abstract:
We examine the impact of coach gender on the probability that NCAA Division I women’s basketball teams advance to the end-of-year NCAA tournament. Results of our full sample analysis show that coach gender has no significant impact on the likelihood of advancing, providing no evidence for ability as a potential explanation for the decline in women coaches. In the subsample analysis, while we find that men coaches have higher predicted probabilities of tournament appearances in non-Power Five conferences, women coaches are more successful in the elite Power Five conferences, where they have been losing the most ground in coaching positions.
Information-Optional Policies and the Gender Concealment Gap
Christine Exley et al.
NBER Working Paper, April 2024
Abstract:
We analyze data from two universities that allowed students to conceal grades from their transcripts during the Covid-19 pandemic. Across both institutions, we observe a significant and substantial gender concealment gap: women are less likely than men to conceal grades that would harm their GPA. We explore the robustness, drivers, and consequences of the concealment gap via rich data on student traits and course-level characteristics as well as complementary data from an experiment with real employers and a survey of impacted students. Our findings highlight how information-optional policies can create unexpected and potentially undesirable disparities.