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Do quotas help women to climb the career ladder? A laboratory experiment

Author

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  • Valeria Maggian

    (Univ Lyon, CNRS, GATE L-SE UMR 5824, F-69130 Ecully, France)

  • Natalia Montinari

    (Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Piazza Scaravilli 2, 40126, Bologna, Italy)

  • Antonio Nicolò

    (Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Manageriali, Università degli Studi di Padova, via del Santo 33, 35123 Padova, Italy; School of Social Sciences University of Manchester, M13 9PL Manchester, UK)

Abstract

Women are underrepresented in leadership positions in business, politics, and in the academic and scientific community. Not taking advantage of the skills of highly qualified women constitutes a waste of talent and, consequently, a loss of economic growth potential. To design effective policy interventions that empower women to reach leadership positions, it is crucial to identify at which levels of the career ladder they should be introduced. In a laboratory experiment, we run a two-stage tournament to evaluate the impact of three different interventions on women’s willingness to compete for top positions. We find that, compared with no intervention, a gender quota introduced at the initial stage is ineffective in encouraging women to compete for the top, while quotas introduced in the final stage of competition or in both stages increase women’s willingness to compete for the top, without distorting the performance of the winners.

Suggested Citation

  • Valeria Maggian & Natalia Montinari & Antonio Nicolò, 2017. "Do quotas help women to climb the career ladder? A laboratory experiment," Working Papers 1724, Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon.
    • Handle: RePEc:gat:wpaper:1724
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    Cited by:

    1. Catherine Eckel & Lata Gangadharan & Philip J. Grossman & Nina Xue, 2021. "The gender leadership gap: insights from experiments," Chapters, in: Ananish Chaudhuri (ed.), A Research Agenda for Experimental Economics, chapter 7, pages 137-162, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Demid Getik & Marco Islam & Margaret Samahita, 2021. "The Inelastic Demand for Affirmative Action," Working Papers 202112, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    3. José J. Domínguez, 2021. "The Effectiveness of Committee Quotas; The Role of Group Dynamics," ThE Papers 21/12, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..
    4. Eszter Czibor & Silvia Dominguez Martinez, 2019. "Never too Late: Gender Quotas in the Final Round of a Multistage Tournament," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 319-363.
    5. Getik, Demid & Islam, Marco & Samahita, Margaret, 2021. "The Inelastic Demand for Affirmative Action," Working Papers 2021:7, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    6. Fernandes, Mario & Hilber, Simon & Sturm, Jan-Egbert & Walter, Andreas, 2023. "Closing the gender gap in academia? Evidence from an affirmative action program," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(9).
    7. Ou, Kai & Pan, Xiaofei, 2021. "The effect of task choice and task assignment on the gender earnings gap: An experimental study," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    8. Schoonjans, Eline & Hottenrott, Hanna & Buchwald, Achim, 2023. "Welcome on board? Appointment dynamics of women as directors," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-005, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    9. Subhasish M. Chowdhury & Patricia Esteve‐González & Anwesha Mukherjee, 2023. "Heterogeneity, leveling the playing field, and affirmative action in contests," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(3), pages 924-974, January.
    10. Domínguez, José J., 2023. "Diversified committees in hiring processes: Lab evidence on group dynamics," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    11. José J. Domínguez & Natalia Montinari, 2021. "Gender Quotas and Task Assignment in Organizations," ThE Papers 21/13, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada..

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender quotas; affirmative action; gender gap; competition; multi-stage tournament; laboratory experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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