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Gender and competition: evidence from academic promotions in France

Bosquet, Clément, Combes, Pierre-Philippe and Garcia-Penalosa, Cecilia (2013) Gender and competition: evidence from academic promotions in France. SERC Discussion Papers (SERCDP0147). Spatial Economics Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Abstract

Differences in promotion across genders are still prevalent in many occupations. Recent work based on experimental evidence indicates that women participate less in or exert lower effort during contests. We exploit the unique features of the promotion system for French academics to look at women's attitudes towards competition in an actual labour market. Using data for academic economists over the period 1991-2008 we find that, conditional on entering the competition, there is no difference in promotions across the genders, which is difficult to reconcile with either discrimination or a poorer performance of women in contests. In contrast, women have a substantially lower probability than men to enter the promotion contest. Our data does not support that this gap is due to differences in costs or in preferences concerning department prestige, indicating that women are less willing than men to take part in contests.

Item Type: Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL: http://www.spatialeconomics.ac.uk/SERC/publication...
Additional Information: © 2013 The Authors
Divisions: Grantham Research Institute
Spatial Economics Research Centre
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
JEL classification: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education > I23 - Higher Education Research Institutions
J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J16 - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J7 - Labor Discrimination
Date Deposited: 28 Jul 2014 12:42
Last Modified: 15 Sep 2023 23:30
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/58350

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