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Sex Matters: Gender Bias in the Mutual Fund Industry
Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi & Stefan Ruenzi
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We document significantly lower inflows in female-managed funds than in male-managed funds. This result is obtained with field data and with data from a laboratory experiment. We find no gender differences in performance. Thus, rational statistical discrimination is unlikely to explain the fund flow effect. We conduct an implicit association test and find that subjects with stronger gender bias according to this test invest significantly less in female-managed funds. Our results suggest that gender bias affects investment decisions and thus offer a new potential explanation for the low fraction of women in the mutual fund industry.
Prestige in a large-scale social group predicts longitudinal changes in testosterone
Joey Cheng, Olga Kornienko & Douglas Granger
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, June 2018, Pages 924-944
Abstract:
In many social species, organisms adaptively fine-tune their competitive behavior in response to previous experiences of social status: Individuals who have prevailed in the past preferentially compete in the future, whereas those who have suffered defeat tend to defer and submit. A growing body of evidence suggests that testosterone functions as a “competition hormone” that coordinates this behavioral plasticity through its characteristic rise and fall following victory and defeat. Although well demonstrated in competitions underpinned by dominance (fear-based status derived from force and intimidation), this pattern has not been examined in status contests that depend solely on prestige — respect-based status derived from success, skills, and knowledge in locally valued domains, devoid of fear or antagonism. Thus, the hormonal mechanisms underlying prestige-based status are largely unknown. Here, we examine the effects of previous experiences of prestige — assessed using community-wide nominations of talent and advice provision — on intraindividual changes in testosterone in a large-scale naturalistic community. Results revealed that men who achieve high standing in the group’s prestige hierarchy in the initial weeks of group formation show a rise in testosterone over the subsequent 2 months, whereas men with low-prestige show a decline or little change in testosterone — a pattern consistent with the functional significance of context-specific testosterone responses. No significant associations were found in women. These results suggest that the long-term up- and downregulation of testosterone provides a mechanism through which past experiences of prestige calibrate psychological systems in a manner that adaptively guides future efforts in seeking and maintaining prestige.
Gender Achievement Gaps in U.S. School Districts
Sean Reardon et al.
Stanford Working Paper, June 2018
Abstract:
In the first systematic study of gender achievement gaps in U.S. school districts, we estimate male-female test score gaps in math and English Language Arts (ELA) for nearly 10,000 school districts in the U.S. We use state accountability test data from third through eighth grade students in the 2008-09 through 2014-15 school years. The average school district in our sample has no gender achievement gap in math, but a gap of roughly 0.23 standard deviations in ELA that favors girls. Both math and ELA gender achievement gaps vary among school districts and are positively correlated – some districts have more male-favoring gaps and some more female-favoring gaps. We find that math gaps tend to favor males more in socioeconomically advantaged school districts and in districts with larger gender disparities in adult socioeconomic status. These two variables explain about one fifth of the variation in the math gaps. However, we find little or no association between the ELA gender gap and either socioeconomic variable, and we explain virtually none of the geographic variation in ELA gaps.
Gender Wage Gaps and Risky vs. Secure Employment: An Experimental Analysis
Se Eun Jung, Chung Choe & Ronald Oaxaca
Labour Economics, June 2018, Pages 112-121
Abstract:
In addition to discrimination, market power, and human capital, gender differences in risk preferences might also contribute to observed gender wage gaps. We conduct laboratory experiments in which subjects choose between a risky (in terms of exposure to unemployment) and a secure job after being assigned in early rounds to both types of jobs. Both jobs involve the same typing task. The risky job adds the element of a known probability that the typing opportunity will not be available in any given period. Subjects were informed of the exogenous risk premium being offered for the risky job. Women were more likely than men to select the secure job, and these job choices accounted for between 40% and 77% of the gender wage gap in the experiments. A method for classifying subjects according to risk preferences is derived from the theoretical framework and further demonstrates the higher incidence of risk aversion among women.
Gender Peer Effects in a Predominantly Male Environment: Evidence from West Point
Nick Huntington-Klein & Elaina Rose
American Economic Review, May 2018, Pages 392-395
Abstract:
There is considerable interest in the success of women in overwhelmingly male environments. One hypothesized determinant of success is the increased presence of other women. However, the theoretical direction of this effect is uncertain. Previous studies of heavily male contexts have had mixed results. We take advantage of random peer group assignment at West Point military academy to identify gender peer effects in the first years in which women were admitted. We find that women do significantly better when placed in companies with more women peers. The addition of one woman peer reduces the gender progression gap by half.
Gender, age, and competition: A disappearing gap?
Jeffrey Flory et al.
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, June 2018, Pages 256–276
Abstract:
Research on competitiveness at the individual level has emphasized sex as a physiological determinant, focusing on the gap in preference for competitive environments between men and women. This study presents evidence that women's preferences over competition change with age such that the gender gap, while large for young adults, disappears in older populations due to the fact that older women are much more competitive. Our finding that tastes for competition appear just as strong among older women as they are among men suggests a simple gender-based view of competitiveness is misleading; age seems just as important as sex.
Disability Saliency and Discrimination in Hiring
Phillip Armour, Patrick Button & Simon Hollands
American Economic Review, May 2018, Pages 262-266
Abstract:
Theory suggests that disability discrimination protections may adversely affect the hiring of individuals with disabilities by making them more expensive. Using SIPP data, we explore how the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), which expanded disability discrimination protections, affected the relative hiring rate of individuals with disabilities. We employ new categorizations of disability type: salient physical conditions, non-salient physical conditions, mental retardation and developmental disability, and other mental conditions. We find that the ADAAA had no effect other than increasing hiring for those with non-salient physical conditions. These results suggest that condition saliency may mediate the effects of discrimination protections on hiring.
Understanding the Dynamics of Network Inequality: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment on Professional Networking
Sofia Bapna & Russell Funk
University of Minnesota Working Paper, April 2018
Abstract:
Women are underrepresented in many STEM fields, like information technology (IT), where 25% of professionals are women. Organizational theory suggests that differences in men’s and women’s networks may contribute to women’s underrepresentation. Using a randomized field experiment at an IT conference, we found that women had worse networking outcomes than men. Relative to men, women met 42% fewer new contacts, spent 48% less time talking to them, and added 25% fewer connections on LinkedIn. We theorized that two networking barriers — search and social — differentially affect men and women. We designed and experimentally tested interventions for reducing these barriers. In the search intervention, individuals received nonreciprocal contact lists (if A was on B's list, B was not necessarily on A's), presented as “networking recommendations.” Through this intervention, subjects were indirectly connected — via the recommendations of their recommendations — to many other conference participants, which may facilitate locating useful contacts. In the social intervention, individuals received reciprocal contact lists, presented as “networking introductions.” Through this intervention, subjects were members of small groups, which may facilitate connecting across social boundaries. Reducing search barriers increased the number of new contacts women met by 57%, the time they spent talking with new contacts by 90%, the number of connections women added on LinkedIn by 29%, and women’s likelihood of changing jobs by 1.6 times. Lowering social barriers increased the time women spent talking to new contacts by 66%. The interventions did not improve men’s outcomes. Our results show that simple interventions can help women grow their networks and find jobs.
The Puzzle of Missing Female Engineers: Academic Preparation, Ability Beliefs, and Preferences
Ying Shi
Economics of Education Review, June 2018, Pages 129-143
Abstract:
This paper uses administrative North Carolina data linked from high school to college and national surveys to characterize the largest contributor to the STEM gender gap: engineering. Disparities are the result of differential entry during high school or earlier rather than postsecondary exit. Differences in pre-college academic preparation account for 5 to 7% of the gap. Females’ relative lack of academic self-confidence explains 8%, while other-regarding preferences and professional goals capture a further 14%. Empirical evidence using identifying variation in the gender composition of twins in North Carolina shows that opposite-sex pairs are more likely to pursue gender-stereotypical majors.
The Importance of Knowing your History: Perceiving Past Women as less Agentic than Contemporary Women Predicts Impaired Quantitative Performance
Nida Bikmen, Mary Abbott Torrence & Victoria Krumholtz
Sex Roles, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research on dynamic stereotypes of women has shown that women perceive large differences between contemporary women and women who lived in the past in terms of agentic (or masculine) traits. This temporal discrepancy in agentic attributes of women may suggest that agency is not a stable trait of women and may result in impaired performance in domains associated with agency, such as quantitative reasoning. We propose that women who think that agency has always characterized their gender group would perform better in quantitative tasks. Indeed, we found that as the difference between agency attributed to present and past women decreased, U.S. college women’s (n = 80) accuracy in a quantitative test increased (Study 1). Further, reading a text about women’s achievements in the history of science reduced the discrepancy between agency attributed to past and present women and had an indirect positive effect on quantitative performance by 150 U.S. college women (Study 2). Findings suggest that women’s participation and performance in science could be improved by raising awareness of women’s historical achievements in male-dominated areas.
Speech and Wages
Jeffrey Grogger
Journal of Human Resources, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although language has been widely studied, relatively little is known about how a worker’s speech, in his native tongue, is related to his wages, or what explains the observed relationship. To address these questions, I analyzed audio data from respondents to the NLSY97. Wages are strongly associated with speech patterns among both African Americans and Southern whites. For Southern whites, this is largely explained by residential location. For blacks, it is explained by sorting: workers with mainstream speech sort toward occupations that involve intensive interpersonal interactions and earn a sizeable wage premium there.
Algorithmic Fairness
Jon Kleinberg et al.
American Economic Review, May 2018, Pages 22-27
Abstract:
Concerns that algorithms may discriminate against certain groups have led to numerous efforts to 'blind' the algorithm to race. We argue that this intuitive perspective is misleading and may do harm. Our primary result is exceedingly simple, yet often overlooked. A preference for fairness should not change the choice of estimator. Equity preferences can change how the estimated prediction function is used (e.g., different threshold for different groups) but the function itself should not change. We show in an empirical example for college admissions that the inclusion of variables such as race can increase both equity and efficiency.
A Two Decade Examination of Historical Race/Ethnicity Disparities in Academic Achievement by Poverty Status
Katherine Paschall, Elizabeth Gershoff & Megan Kuhfeld
Journal of Youth and Adolescence, June 2018, Pages 1164–1177
Abstract:
Research on achievement gaps by race/ethnicity and poverty status typically focuses on each gap separately, and recent syntheses suggest the poverty gap is growing while racial/ethnic gaps are narrowing. In this study, we used time-varying effect modeling to examine the interaction of race/ethnicity and poverty gaps in math and reading achievement from 1986–2005 for poor and non-poor White, Black, and Hispanic students in three age groups (5–6, 9–10, and 13–14). We found that across this twenty-year period, the gaps between poor White students and their poor Black and Hispanic peers grew, while the gap between non-poor Whites and Hispanics narrowed. We conclude that understanding the nature of achievement gaps requires simultaneous examination of race/ethnicity and income.
“Dirty” Workplace Politics and Well-Being: The Role of Gender
Jennica Webster et al.
Psychology of Women Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
We build and empirically test an integrative model of gender, workplace politics, and stress by integrating social role theory and prescriptive gender stereotypes with the transactional theory of stress. To examine the effect of gender on the relation between exposure to non-sanctioned political influence tactics (NPITs; e.g., self-serving and socially undesirable behaviors such as manipulation and intimidation) and stress outcomes, we employed a daily diary design with 64 employed adults over the course of 12 working days. In support of our hypotheses, exposure to NPITs – that is, “dirty politics” – elicited a threat appraisal that, in turn, related to the activation of negative emotions. Moreover, unlike men, women who reported higher levels of NPITs experienced heightened levels of threat appraisal and ultimately negative emotions. We demonstrate that pairing social role theory with the transactional theory of stress is a useful approach for researchers interested in better understanding gender differences in the occupational stress process. Anyone interested in reducing stress in the workplace is encouraged not only to reduce the occurrence of NPITs but also to consider ways to reduce the threat associated with them, especially for women.
Last Place? The Intersection of Ethnicity, Gender, and Race in Biomedical Authorship
Gerald Marschke et al.
American Economic Review, May 2018, Pages 222-227
Abstract:
Applying big data methods to biomedical science articles, we show that women and underrepresented racial and ethnic groups are less likely to be last authors, an indicator of career independence. We leverage the massive size of our data to highlight the importance of intersectionality, the idea that ethnicity, gender, and race are not necessarily additive, but interact to determine experiences and outcomes. In particular, gender gaps are smaller among blacks and Hispanics than among non-Hispanic whites. Our analysis is timely given serious concerns with under-representation of women and minorities in biomedicine and other STEM fields.
Do Mentoring, Information, and Nudge Reduce the Gender Gap in Economics Majors?
Hsueh-hsiang Li
Economics of Education Review, June 2018, Pages 165-183
Abstract:
The gender gap in economics majors (i.e., male students are much more likely to major in economics than are their female counterparts) has remained large, despite narrowing gaps observed in many other fields. This study examines whether mentoring, the provision of additional information, and nudges help reduce the gender gap in economics majors via a randomized controlled experiment conducted in introductory economics classes at a large, public, four-year institution in the United States. The results show that the treatment effects are heterogeneous and have the most significant impact on female students with grades above the median. The treatments increase these female students’ probability of majoring in economics by 5.41 – 6.27 percentage points.