Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP13075
Authors: Lars Persson; Fredrik Heyman; Pehr-Johan Norbäck
Abstract: Research show that women are disadvantaged in inflexible occupations. We show that this will imply that female managers are on average more skilled than male managers. Due to the higher hurdles faced by women, only the most skilled among them will pursue a management career. This implies that female managers will, on average, be more beneficial for the firm when product market competition is intense. Using detailed matched employee-employer data, we find that (i) more intense product market competition leads to relatively higher wages for female managers and (ii) the share of female managers is higher in firms in more competitive industries.
Keywords: career; gender wage gap; job inflexibility; management; competition
JEL Codes: J7; L2; M5
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Product market competition (L13) | Higher wages for female managers (J31) |
| Product market competition (L13) | Higher relative wages for female managers compared to male managers (J31) |
| Product market competition (L13) | Higher share of female managers in competitive industries (J21) |
| Higher relative wages for female managers compared to male managers (J31) | Higher share of female managers in competitive industries (J21) |
| Product market competition (L13) | Wage gap decrease between female and male managers (J31) |
| Product market competition (L13) | No significant effect on wages of lower-skilled groups (F66) |