Gender Career Gap and Firm Composition

ended

As careers progress women tend to lag behind their male peers. This career divergence results in the underrepresentation of women in positions of power, which is bound to bear an important cost to individuals, firms, and society. It is likely to be linked with a misallocation of talent, make the glass ceiling more impenetrable, and hinder future progress towards equality. The focus of this project is on the role of gender composition within firms and occupations on the career divergence of men and women. Relying on high quality administrative data and a credible empirical design, I will estimate how the share of women in a firm affects the gender career gap. Then employing structural estimation approach, I will test the effectiveness of policies aimed at reducing gender imbalances within the workplace, such as quotas or equal opportunity policy. Finally, I will conduct a comparative analysis across European countries to test the external validity of the findings and to draw lessons on the role of institutional environment and how it interacts with different employment policies. The question I address speaks directly to an ongoing global political and economic debate. Advancement towards gender equality is currently one of the priorities of the new Strategic Agenda of the EU. The approach I take is novel and the results have a potential to shed light on the underlying causes of workplace gender imbalances. Finally, the cross-country comparative analysis will add to the relevance of this proposal in a European perspective. The community of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Barcelona School of Economics and the supervision by Professor González constitute the perfect environment to conduct this project. The main factors being the outstanding research conditions, the strong affinity of research interests and agenda with the Supervisor, and the presence of a high number of experts with complementary knowledge and skills, which will lead to two-way knowledge transfer.