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Gender Gaps in Performance: Evidence from Young Lawyers

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  • Ghazala Azmat

    (Queen Mary University of London, and Centre for Economic Performance (LSE))

  • Rosa Ferrer

    () (Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Barcelona GSE)

Abstract

This paper documents and studies the gender gap in performance among associate lawyers in the United States. Unlike other high-skilled professions, the legal profession assesses performance using transparent measures that are widely used and comparable across firms: the number of hours billed to clients and the amount of new client revenue generated. We find clear evidence of a gender gap in annual performance with respect to both measures. Male lawyers bill ten percent more hours and bring in more than twice the new client revenue than do female lawyers. We demonstrate that the differential impact across genders in the presence of young children and differences in aspirations to become a law firm partner account for a large share of the difference in performance. We also show that accounting for performance has important consequences for gender gaps in lawyers' earnings and subsequent promotion. Whereas individual and firm characteristics explain up to 50 percent of the earnings gap, the inclusion of performance measures explains a substantial share of the remainder. Performance measures also explain a sizeable share of the gender gap in promotion.

Suggested Citation

  • Ghazala Azmat & Rosa Ferrer, 2015. "Gender Gaps in Performance: Evidence from Young Lawyers," Working Papers 756, Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance.
    • Handle: RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:wp756
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    Cited by:

    1. Josef Montag, 2015. "What Drives the Gender Gap? An Analysis Using Sexual Orientation," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(4), pages 577-608, November.
    2. Hospido, Laura & Laeven, Luc & Lamo, Ana, 2019. "The Gender Promotion Gap: Evidence from Central Banking," IZA Discussion Papers 12306, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Anthony B. Atkinson & Alessandra Casarico & Sarah Voitchovsky, 2018. "Top incomes and the gender divide," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(2), pages 225-256, June.
    4. Espinoza, Raphael & Ostry, Jonathan D. & Papageorgiou, Chris, 2019. "The Armistice of the Sexes: Gender Complementarities in the Production Function," CEPR Discussion Papers 13792, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. David Newton & Mikhail Simutin, 2015. "Of Age, Sex, and Money: Insights from Corporate Officer Compensation on the Wage Inequality Between Genders," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(10), pages 2355-2375, October.
    6. Nayoung Rim & Kyung Park, 2017. "The Gendered Effects of Career Concerns on Fertility," Departmental Working Papers 59, United States Naval Academy Department of Economics.
    7. Karimi, Arizo & Lindahl, Erica & Skogman Thoursie, Peter, 2012. "Labour Supply Responses to Paid Parental Leave," Working Paper Series, Center for Labor Studies 2012:20, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    8. Donna, Javier D. & Veramendi, Gregory F., 2018. "Gender Differences within the Firm: Evidence from Two Million Travelers," MPRA Paper 92834, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Menzel, Andreas & Woodruff, Christopher, 2019. "Gender Wage Gaps and Worker Mobility: Evidence from the Garment Sector in Bangladesh," CEPR Discussion Papers 13577, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Holger Sieg & Yu Wang, 2017. "The Impact of Student Debt on Education, Career, and Marriage Choices of Female Lawyers," NBER Working Papers 23453, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Collischon, Matthias, 2016. "Personality, ability, marriage and the gender wage gap: Evidence from Germany," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 08/2016, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.
    12. Estrella Gomez Herrera & Frank Mueller-Langer, 2019. "Is There a Gender Wage Gap in Online Labour Markets? Evidence from Over 250,000 Projects and 2.5 Million Wage Bill Proposals," JRC Working Papers on Digital Economy 2019-01, Joint Research Centre (Seville site).
    13. Jan Sauermann, 2016. "Performance measures and worker productivity," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 260-260, May.
    14. Cook, Cody & Diamond, Rebecca & Hall, Jonathan & List, John A. & Oyer, Paul, 2018. "The Gender Earnings Gap in the Gig Economy: Evidence from over a Million Rideshare Drivers," Research Papers repec:ecl:stabus:3637, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    15. Bütikofer, Aline & Jensen, Sissel & Salvanes, Kjell G., 2018. "The role of parenthood on the gender gap among top earners," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 103-123.
    16. Zeltzer, Dan, 2017. "Gender Homophily in Referral Networks: Consequences for the Medicare Physician Earnings Gap," IZA Discussion Papers 11230, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Isabelle Sin & Steven Stillman & Richard Fabling, 2017. "What drives the gender wage gap? Examining the roles of sorting, productivity differences, and discrimination," Working Papers 17_15, Motu Economic and Public Policy Research.
    18. Michele Raitano & Francesco Vona, 2018. "Nepotism vs specific skills : the effect of professional liberalization on returns to parental back grounds of italian lawyers," Sciences Po publications 36, Sciences Po.
    19. Hengel, E., 2017. "Publishing while Female. Are women held to higher standards? Evidence from peer review," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1753, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    20. V. Joseph Hotz & Per Johansson & Arizo Karimi, 2017. "Parenthood, Family Friendly Workplaces, and the Gender Gaps in Early Work Careers," NBER Working Papers 24173, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Rebecca Glauber, 2018. "Trends in the Motherhood Wage Penalty and Fatherhood Wage Premium for Low, Middle, and High Earners," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(5), pages 1663-1680, October.
    22. Angelov, Nikolay & Johansson, Per & Lindahl, Erica, 2013. "Is the persistent gender gap in income and wages due to unequal family responsibilities?," Working Paper Series 2013:3, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
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    24. Adnan, Wifag & Miaari, Sami H., 2018. "Voting Patterns and the Gender Wage Gap," IZA Discussion Papers 11261, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    25. Laura Luekemann & Anja-Kristin Abendroth, 2018. "Women in the German Workplace: What Facilitates or Constrains Their Claims-Making for Career Advancement?," Social Sciences, MDPI, Open Access Journal, vol. 7(11), pages 1-34, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Performance measures; Gender gaps; High-skilled professionals;

    JEL classification:

    • M52 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Compensation and Compensation Methods and Their Effects
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • K40 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - General
    • J44 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Professional Labor Markets and Occupations

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