Do Women Respond Less to Performance Pay? Building Evidence from Multiple Experiments

A-Tier
Journal: American Economic Review: Insights
Year: 2021
Volume: 3
Issue: 4
Pages: 435-54

Authors (4)

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 4 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Existing empirical work raises the hypothesis that performance pay—whatever its output gains—may widen the gender earnings gap because women may respond less to incentives. We evaluate this possibility by aggregating evidence from existing experiments on performance incentives with male and female subjects. Using a Bayesian hierarchical model, we estimate both the average effect and heterogeneity across studies. We find that the gender response difference is close to zero and heterogeneity across studies is small, while performance pay increases output by 0.36 standard deviations on average. The data thus support agency theory for men and women alike.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:aea:aerins:v:3:y:2021:i:4:p:435-54
Journal Field
General
Author Count
4
Added to Database
2026-01-24