IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp18603.html

Diversity and Access in Academic Finance Seminars

Author

Listed:
  • Gertsberg, Marina

    (University of Melbourne)

Abstract

Academic seminars are a central mechanism through which the finance profession allocates visibility, feedback, and network access. Using a new panel of 8,744 external seminars at 74 U.S. finance departments from 2010 to 2024, I document five stylized facts. First, female representation rose from 10% to 25%, outpacing growth in the female share of the finance faculty. Second, seminar presenters are positively selected on research visibility: relative to same-institution faculty, they have substantially more publications, Top-3 publications, and citations, and this premium is no larger for women than for men. Third, seminar matching is strongly hierarchical: lower-ranked departments invite upward, whereas top departments draw from a broader range of tiers. Fourth, geographic reach is greater for elite-affiliated and senior scholars. Fifth, seminar opportunities are highly concentrated, with the top 10% of presenters accounting for 43% of all talks. The evidence shows that finance seminars have become more gender-inclusive while remaining strongly selective and hierarchical.

Suggested Citation

  • Gertsberg, Marina, 2026. "Diversity and Access in Academic Finance Seminars," IZA Discussion Papers 18603, IZA Network @ LISER.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18603
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp18603.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brad M. Barber & Wei Jiang & Adair Morse & Manju Puri & Heather Tookes & Ingrid M. Werner, 2021. "What Explains Differences in Finance Research Productivity during the Pandemic?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 76(4), pages 1655-1697, August.
    2. Donna K. Ginther & Janet M. Currie & Francine D. Blau & Rachel T. A. Croson, 2020. "Can Mentoring Help Female Assistant Professors in Economics? An Evaluation by Randomized Trial," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 110, pages 205-209, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Takao Kato & Yang Song, 2022. "Advising, gender, and performance: Evidence from a university with exogenous adviser–student gender match," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(1), pages 121-141, January.
    2. Yanping Li & Lawrence Jun Zhang & Naashia Mohamed, 2024. "The influence of mentorship and working environments on foreign language teachers’ research motivation in China," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Donna K. Ginther & Rina Na, 2021. "Does Mentoring Increase the Collaboration Networks of Female Economists? An Evaluation of the CeMENT Randomized Trial," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 111, pages 80-85, May.
    4. Francine D. Blau & Lisa M. Lynch, 2024. "Fifty Years of Breakthroughs and Barriers: Women in Economics, Policy, and Leadership," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 711(1), pages 225-244, January.
    5. Datta, Deepa D. & Tzur-Ilan, Nitzan, 2025. "Gender Gaps in the Federal Reserve System," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    6. Xiaocheng Hu, 2022. "The role of manager's gender in mentoring: Evidence in the United Kingdom," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 36(3), pages 389-407, September.
    7. Todd Pugatch & Elizabeth Schroeder, 2021. "Promoting Female Interest in Economics: Limits to Nudges," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 111, pages 123-127, May.
    8. Sara Ain Tommar & Olga Kolokolova & Roberto Mura, 2022. "When Paid Work Gives in to Unpaid Care Work: Evidence from the Hedge Fund Industry Under COVID-19," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(8), pages 6250-6267, August.
    9. Gamage, Danula K. & Sevilla, Almudena & Smith, Sarah, 2020. "Women in Economics: A UK Perspective," IZA Discussion Papers 13477, IZA Network @ LISER.
    10. Erin L. Kelly & Hazhir Rahmandad & Nathan Wilmers & Aishwarya Yadama, 2023. "How Do Employer Practices Affect Economic Mobility?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 76(5), pages 792-832, October.
    11. Maximilian Mähr, 2025. "Consequences of Affirmative Action: The Impact of Hiring a Female Professor," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2025_677v2, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany, revised Apr 2025.
    12. Sangeeta Bansal & Brinda Viswanathan & J. V. Meenakshi, 2023. "Does research performance explain the “leaky pipeline” in Indian academia? A study of agricultural and applied economics," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(2), pages 274-288, March.
    13. Amanda J. Felkey & Dimitra Papadovasilaki, 2023. "Gender Code-Switching in Economics and Finance," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 7(1), pages 43-50, November.
    14. Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, 2023. "The remote work revolution: Impact on real estate values and the urban environment: 2023 AREUEA Presidential Address," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 51(1), pages 7-48, January.
    15. Agarwal, Vikas & Jiang, Wei & Luo, Yuchen & Zou, Hong, 2023. "The real effect of sociopolitical racial animus: Mutual fund manager performance during the AAPI Hate," CFR Working Papers 23-05, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    16. MinSub Kim & Joyce J. Chen & Bruce A. Weinberg, 2023. "Gender pay gaps in economics: A deeper look at institutional factors," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(4), pages 471-486, July.
    17. Francine D. Blau & Lisa M. Lynch, 2024. "50 Years of Breakthroughs and Barriers: Women in Economics, Policy, and Leadership," NBER Working Papers 32820, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Frank Germann & Stephen J. Anderson & Pradeep K. Chintagunta & Naufel Vilcassim, 2024. "Frontiers: Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Empowering Female Entrepreneurs Through Female Mentors," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(2), pages 244-253, March.
    19. Frank Weikai Li & Baolian Wang, 2025. "The gender effects of COVID: evidence from equity analysts," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 1683-1715, June.
    20. Tatyana Deryugina & Olga Shurchkov & Jenna Stearns, 2022. "Public School Access or Stay-at-Home Partner: Factors Mitigating the Adverse Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Academic Parents," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 112, pages 267-271, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

    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:iza:izadps:dp18603. 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: Mark Fallak (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaalu.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.