Games (Dec 2018)

Endogenously Emerging Gender Pay Gap in an Experimental Teamwork Setting

  • Özgür Gürerk,
  • Bernd Irlenbusch,
  • Bettina Rockenbach

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/g9040098
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 4
p. 98

Abstract

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We studied gender diversity and performance in endogenously formed teams in a repeated teamwork setting. In our experiment, the participants (N = 168, 84 women and 84 men) chose whether to perform a cooperative task only with members of the own gender or in a mixed-gender team. We found that independent of the choice of team, in the initial period, men contributed significantly more to the team projects than women. Men preferred the successful men-only teams in the subsequent periods, resulting in significantly higher profits for men compared to women. This endogenously emerging “gender pay gap„ only closed over time.

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