IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v96y2006i4p1283-1292.html

What is Discrimination? Gender in the American Economic Association, 1935-2004

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen G. Donald
  • Daniel S. Hamermesh

Abstract

We illustrate problems of measuring discrimination using elections to AEA offices. With a new econometric technique, we find female candidates have a much better than random chance of victory. This advantage is either reverse discrimination or reflects beliefs that women are more productive. The former interpretation could be explained by an unchanging median voter whose preferences were not satisfied by suppliers of candidates; but there was a structural change in voting behavior in the mid-1970s. The results suggest it is generally impossible to claim differences in rewards, for different groups measure the extent of discrimination or even its direction. (JEL A11, D72, J16)

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen G. Donald & Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2006. "What is Discrimination? Gender in the American Economic Association, 1935-2004," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 96(4), pages 1283-1292, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:96:y:2006:i:4:p:1283-1292
    DOI: 10.1257/aer.96.4.1283
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.96.4.1283
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/sept06/20040699_data.zip
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/aer.96.4.1283?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John M. McDowell & Larry D. Singell Jr. & James P. Ziliak, 2001. "Gender and Promotion in the Economics Profession," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 54(2), pages 224-244, January.
    2. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2000. "Gender Differences in Pay," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 75-99, Fall.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jason Abrevaya & Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2012. "Charity and Favoritism in the Field: Are Female Economists Nicer (To Each Other)?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 94(1), pages 202-207, February.
    2. Jan Feld & Nicolás Salamanca & Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2016. "Endophilia or Exophobia: Beyond Discrimination," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(594), pages 1503-1527, August.
    3. Christopher A. Parsons & Johan Sulaeman & Michael C. Yates & Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2011. "Strike Three: Discrimination, Incentives, and Evaluation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1410-1435, June.
    4. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2018. "Citations in Economics: Measurement, Uses, and Impacts," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(1), pages 115-156, March.
    5. David Card & Stefano DellaVigna & Patricia Funk & Nagore Iriberri, 2020. "Are Referees and Editors in Economics Gender Neutral?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(1), pages 269-327.
    6. Lucia Foster & Erika McEntarfer & Danielle H. Sandler, 2022. "Diversity and Labor Market Outcomes in the Economics Profession," Working Papers 22-26, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    7. Bransch, Felix & Kvasnicka, Michael, 2022. "Male Gatekeepers: Gender Bias in the Publishing Process?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 714-732.
    8. Lucia Foster & Erika McEntarfer & Danielle H. Sandler, 2023. "Diversity and Equity in Labor Market Outcomes for Economists," Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy, Springer, vol. 6(4), pages 246-257, December.
    9. Daniel LaFave & Randy Nelson & Michael Doherty, 2018. "Race and Retention in a Competitive Labor Market," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(3), pages 417-451, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pema, Elda & Mehay, Stephen, 2010. "The role of job assignment and human capital endowments in explaining gender differences in job performance and promotion," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 998-1009, December.
    2. Clément Bosquet & Pierre‐Philippe Combes & Cecilia García‐Peñalosa, 2019. "Gender and Promotions: Evidence from Academic Economists in France," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 121(3), pages 1020-1053, July.
    3. Boneva, Teodora & Golin, Marta & Kaufmann, Katja Maria & Rauh, Christopher, 2022. "Beliefs about Maternal Labor Supply," IZA Discussion Papers 15788, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Kyyrä, Tomi & Korkeamäki, Ossi, 2003. "Explaining Gender Wage Differentials: Findings from a Random Effects Model," Discussion Papers 320, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Coral del Río Otero & Carlos Gradín Lago & Olga Cantó Sánchez, 2004. "El enfoque distributivo en el análisis de la discriminación salarial por razón de género," Working Papers 0405, Universidade de Vigo, Departamento de Economía Aplicada.
    6. Christian Pfeifer & Tatjana Sohr, 2009. "Analysing the Gender Wage Gap (GWG) Using Personnel Records," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 23(2), pages 257-282, June.
    7. Kanazawa, Satoshi, 2005. "Is "discrimination" necessary to explain the sex gap in earnings?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 269-287, April.
    8. Brock, J Michelle, 2018. "Inequality of opportunity, governance and individual beliefs," CEPR Discussion Papers 12636, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Knowles, John, 2007. "Why Are Married Men Working So Much? Home Production, Household Bargaining and Per-Capita Hours," IZA Discussion Papers 2909, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Juan J. Dolado & Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa & Sara de La Rica, 2013. "On Gender Gaps And Self-Fulfilling Expectations: Alternative Implications Of Paid-For Training," Post-Print hal-01499641, HAL.
    11. Anthony Strittmatter & Conny Wunsch, 2025. "Labor market sorting and the gender pay gap revisited," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 38(3), pages 1-41, September.
    12. Iga Magda & Ewa Cukrowska-Torzewska, 2019. "Gender wage gap in the workplace: Does the age of the firm matter?," IBS Working Papers 01/2019, Instytut Badan Strukturalnych.
    13. Mathieu Narcy & Joseph Lanfranchi & Chloé Duvivier, 2016. "Les sources de l’écart de rémunération entre femmes et hommes dans la fonction publique," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 488(1), pages 123-150.
    14. Priit Vahter & Jaan Masso, 2019. "The contribution of multinationals to wage inequality: foreign ownership and the gender pay gap," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 155(1), pages 105-148, February.
    15. Singell, Larry D. & Tang, Hui-Hsuan, 2013. "Pomp and circumstance: University presidents and the role of human capital in determining who leads U.S. research institutions," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 219-233.
    16. François Rycx & Ilan Tojerow, 2004. "Rent sharing and the gender wage gap in Belgium," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 25(3/4), pages 279-299, April.
    17. Jellal, Mohamed & Nordman, Christophe, 2009. "A Theory of Gender Wage Gap," MPRA Paper 17409, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Matthew Pearson & Burkhard Schipper, 2012. "The visible hand: finger ratio (2D:4D) and competitive bidding," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 15(3), pages 510-529, September.
    19. Mohammad Ashraf, 2009. "Characteristics of female managers in the US labour market," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(17), pages 1683-1686.
    20. Tugce, Cuhadaroglu, 2013. "My Group Beats Your Group: Evaluating Non-Income Inequalities," SIRE Discussion Papers 2013-49, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. What Is Discrimination? Gender in the American Economic Association, 1935-2004 (AER 2006) in ReplicationWiki

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:96:y:2006:i:4:p:1283-1292. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.