IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/128788.html

Effects of team diversity on individual performance and voice: a field experiment of group composition by gender and language

Author

Listed:
  • Contreras Silva, Valentina
  • Orsini, Chiara
  • Özcan, Berkay
  • Koehler, Johann

Abstract

We present results from a field experiment that tests the effects of varying gender and linguistic group composition on performance and on group-members’ perception that their voice is heard when completing complex collaborative work within a low scrutiny environment. We randomize individuals enrolled in a postgraduate course populated by mostly women and non-native English speakers into small teams within larger, exogenously assigned seminar groups. Groups are tasked with complex and deliberative research assignments over three months. Using administrative and survey data, we find that a higher share of women in seminar groups significantly benefits the academic performance of group members—an effect driven by a positive effect on female native English speakers — while a greater proportion of women in small teams improves non-native language speakers’ perception of being heard.

Suggested Citation

  • Contreras Silva, Valentina & Orsini, Chiara & Özcan, Berkay & Koehler, Johann, 2025. "Effects of team diversity on individual performance and voice: a field experiment of group composition by gender and language," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 128788, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:128788
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/128788/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anderson, Michael L., 2008. "Multiple Inference and Gender Differences in the Effects of Early Intervention: A Reevaluation of the Abecedarian, Perry Preschool, and Early Training Projects," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 103(484), pages 1481-1495.
    2. Ghazala Azmat, 2019. "Gender diversity in teams," World of Labour, LISER, pages 1-29, May.
    3. Eric D. Gould & Victor Lavy & M. Daniele Paserman, 2009. "Does Immigration Affect the Long‐Term Educational Outcomes of Natives? Quasi‐Experimental Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(540), pages 1243-1269, October.
    4. David Hardt & Lea Mayer & Johannes Rincke, 2023. "Who Does the Talking Here? The Impact of Gender Composition on Team Interactions," CESifo Working Paper Series 10550, CESifo.
    5. Sule Alan & Gozde Corekcioglu & Mustafa Kaba & Matthias Sutter, 2023. "Female Leadership and Workplace Climate," ECONtribute Policy Brief Series 057, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    6. Charles F. Manski, 1993. "Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 531-542.
    7. Gordon B Dahl & Andreas Kotsadam & Dan-Olof Rooth, 2021. "Does Integration Change Gender Attitudes? The Effect of Randomly Assigning Women to Traditionally Male Teams," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 136(2), pages 987-1030.
    8. Chevalier, Arnaud & Isphording, Ingo E. & Lisauskaite, Elena, 2020. "Peer diversity, college performance and educational choices," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    9. John A. List & Azeem M. Shaikh & Yang Xu, 2019. "Multiple hypothesis testing in experimental economics," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 22(4), pages 773-793, December.
    10. Barsbai, Toman & Licuanan, Victoria & Steinmayr, Andreas & Tiongson, Erwin & Yang, Dean, 2024. "Information and immigrant settlement," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    11. Caroline Hoxby, 2000. "Peer Effects in the Classroom: Learning from Gender and Race Variation," NBER Working Papers 7867, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Bruce Sacerdote, 2001. "Peer Effects with Random Assignment: Results for Dartmouth Roommates," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(2), pages 681-704.
    13. Schneeweis, Nicole, 2015. "Immigrant concentration in schools: Consequences for native and migrant students," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 63-76.
    14. Koen Jochmans, 2023. "Testing random assignment to peer groups," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 321-333, April.
    15. Charlotte Geay & Sandra McNally & Shqiponja Telhaj, 2013. "Non‐native Speakers of English in the Classroom: What Are the Effects on Pupil Performance?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0, pages 281-307, August.
    16. Emily Oster, 2019. "Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 187-204, April.
    17. Schneeweis, Nicole & Zweimüller, Martina, 2012. "Girls, girls, girls: Gender composition and female school choice," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 482-500.
    18. Victor Lavy & Analia Schlosser, 2011. "Mechanisms and Impacts of Gender Peer Effects at School," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 1-33, April.
    19. Victor Lavy & Analia Schlosser, 2011. "Mechanisms and Impacts of Gender Peer Effects at School," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 1-33, April.
    20. Sule Alan & Enes Duysak & Elif Kubilay & Ipek Mumcu, 2023. "Social Exclusion and Ethnic Segregation in Schools: The Role of Teachers' Ethnic Prejudice," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 105(5), pages 1039-1054, September.
    21. Edward P. Lazear, 1999. "Culture and Language," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(S6), pages 95-126, December.
    22. Andreas Born & Eva Ranehill & Anna Sandberg, 2022. "Gender and Willingness to Lead: Does the Gender Composition of Teams Matter?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 104(2), pages 259-275, May.
    23. Ben Weidmann & David J. Deming, 2021. "Team Players: How Social Skills Improve Team Performance," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(6), pages 2637-2657, November.
    24. Oosterbeek, Hessel & van Ewijk, Reyn, 2014. "Gender peer effects in university: Evidence from a randomized experiment," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 51-63.
    25. Coffman, Katherine & Flikkema, Clio Bryant & Shurchkov, Olga, 2021. "Gender stereotypes in deliberation and team decisions," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 329-349.
    26. Jensen, Peter & Rasmussen, Astrid Würtz, 2011. "The effect of immigrant concentration in schools on native and immigrant children's reading and math skills," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1503-1515.
    27. Diette, Timothy M. & Uwaifo Oyelere, Ruth, 2012. "Do Significant Immigrant Inflows Create Negative Education Impacts? Lessons from the North Carolina Public School System," IZA Discussion Papers 6561, IZA Network @ LISER.
    28. Fischer, Stefanie, 2017. "The downside of good peers: How classroom composition differentially affects men's and women's STEM persistence," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 211-226.
    29. Christopher F. Karpowitz & Stephen D. O’Connell & Jessica Preece & Olga Stoddard, 2024. "Strength in Numbers? Gender Composition, Leadership, and Women’s Influence in Teams," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 132(9), pages 3077-3114.
    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. Xiaoyue Shan, 2026. "Gender Diversity Improves Performance but Reinforces Gendered Roles," CESifo Working Paper Series 12565, CESifo.

    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. Contreras, Valentina & Orsini, Chiara & Özcan, Berkay & Koehler, Johann, 2025. "Effects of team diversity on individual performance and voice: A field experiment of group composition by gender and language," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    2. Contreras, Valentina & Orsini, Chiara & Özcan, Berkay & Koehler, Johann, 2025. "Effects of Team Diversity on Individual Performance and Voice: A Field Experiment of Group Composition by Gender and Language," IZA Discussion Papers 18145, IZA Network @ LISER.
    3. Thiemann, Petra, 2017. "The Persistent Effects of Short-Term Peer Groups in Higher Education," IZA Discussion Papers 11024, IZA Network @ LISER.
    4. Bossavie, Laurent, 2017. "Immigrant Concentration at School and Natives’ Achievement: Does the Type of Migrants and Natives Matter?," MPRA Paper 80308, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Xiaoyue Shan, 2026. "Gender Diversity Improves Performance but Reinforces Gendered Roles," CESifo Working Paper Series 12565, CESifo.
    6. Wang, Haining & Cheng, Zhiming & Smyth, Russell, 2018. "Do migrant students affect local students’ academic achievements in urban China?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 64-77.
    7. Dewan, Prerna & Ray, Tridip & Roy Chaudhuri, Arka & Tater, Kirti, 2024. "Gender peer effects in high schools: Evidence from India," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 470-494.
    8. Padilla-Romo, María & Peluffo, Cecilia, 2023. "Violence-induced migration and peer effects in academic performance," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    9. Xiaodong Zheng & Yanran Zhou, 2024. "Are migrants a threat? Migrant children and human capital investments among local households in urban China," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    10. Modena, Francesca & Rettore, Enrico & Tanzi, Giulia, 2021. "Does Gender Matter? The Effect of High Performing Peers on Academic Performances," IZA Discussion Papers 14806, IZA Network @ LISER.
    11. Oleg V. Poldin & Tania P. Simoes & Marcelo Knobel & Maria M. Yudkevich, 2015. "Estimation of Peer Effects with Predicted Social Ties: Evidence from Two Universities in Brazil and Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 30/EDU/2015, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    12. Modena, Francesca & Rettore, Enrico & Tanzi, Giulia Martina, 2022. "Asymmetries in the gender effect of high-performing peers: Evidence from tertiary education," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    13. Chen, Yuanyuan & Feng, Shuaizhang & Yang, Chao, 2024. "Heterogeneous peer effects under endogenous selection: An application to local and migrant children in elementary schools in Shanghai," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    14. Raphael Brade, 2024. "Short-Term Events, Long-Term Friends? Freshman Orientation Peers and Academic Performance," CESifo Working Paper Series 11046, CESifo.
    15. Costas-Fernández, Julián & Morando, Greta & Holford, Angus, 2023. "The effect of foreign students in higher education on native students’ outcomes," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    16. Menaka Hampole & Francesca Truffa & Ashley Wong, 2024. "Peer Effects and the Gender Gap in Corporate Leadership: Evidence from MBA Students," CESifo Working Paper Series 11295, CESifo.
    17. Martina Zanella, 2024. "Stereotypical Selection," Trinity Economics Papers tep0224, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2024.
    18. Dinarte-Diaz, Lelys, 2025. "Understanding the effects of group composition by risk for violence. Experimental evidence from El Salvador," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    19. Briole, Simon, 2021. "Are girls always good for boys? Short and long term effects of school peers’ gender," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    20. Braakmann, Nils & McDonald, Stephen, 2018. "Student exposure to socio-economic diversity and students’ university outcomes – Evidence from English administrative data," MPRA Paper 90351, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ehl:lserod:128788. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.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.