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Risk Taking and Gender in Hierarchies

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Author Info
Suzanne Scotchmer

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Abstract

In a labor market hierarchy, promotions are affected by the noisiness of information about the candidates. I study the hypothesis that males are more risk taking than females, and its implications for rates of promotion and abilities of survivors. I define promotion hierarchies with and without memory, where memory means that promotion depends on the entire history of success. In both types of hierarchies, the surviving risk takers will have lower average ability whenever they have a higher survival rate. Further, even if more risk takers than non risk takers are promoted in the beginning of the hierarchy, that will be reversed over time. The risk takers will eventually have a lower survival rate, but higher ability. As a consequence of these differences, the various requirements of employment law cannot simultaneously be satisfied. Further, if promotion standards are chosen to maximize profit, the standards will reflect gender in ways that are difficult to distinguish from discriminatory intent.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 14464.

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Date of creation: Nov 2008
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14464

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D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies

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  1. Sobel, Joel, 2001. "On the Dynamics of Standards," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 32(4), pages 606-23, Winter.
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  2. Dekel, Eddie & Scotchmer, Suzanne, 1999. "On the Evolution of Attitudes towards Risk in Winner-Take-All Games," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 125-143, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Peter Bardsley & Katerina Sherstyuk, 2006. "Rat Races and Glass Ceilings," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, Berkeley Electronic Press, vol. 0(1). [Downloadable!]
  4. M.P. Espinosa & J. Gardeazabal, 2007. "Do students behave rationally in multiple-choice tests? Evidence from a field experiment," Natural Field Experiments 0044, The Field Experiments Website. [Downloadable!]
  5. Milgrom, Paul & Oster, Sharon, 1987. "Job Discrimination, Market Forces, and the Invisibility Hypothesis," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 102(3), pages 453-76, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Harry Holzer & David Neumark, 2000. "Assessing Affirmative Action," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(3), pages 483-568, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Lundberg, Shelly J, 1991. "The Enforcement of Equal Opportunity Laws under Imperfect Information: Affirmative Action and Alternatives," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 106(1), pages 309-26, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Lundberg, Shelly J & Startz, Richard, 1983. "Private Discrimination and Social Intervention in Competitive Labor Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(3), pages 340-47, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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