Gender Discrimination against Pre-PhD Students: A Field Experiment

Philipp Doerrenberg (), Christoph Feldhaus (), Paula Scholz () and Sebastian Berger ()
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Philipp Doerrenberg: University of Mannheim
Christoph Feldhaus: Ruhr University Bochum
Paula Scholz: University of Cologne
Sebastian Berger: Bern University of Applied Sciences

No 439, ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series from University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany

Abstract: We conduct a field experiment on gender discrimination against pre-PhD students in academic economics and business administration. We invite the universe of postdocs and professors at German, Austrian, and Swiss universities to a survey on AI in teaching. Invitations are randomly sent by nine male and nine female Master’s students. Each student also randomly varies whether their email mentions a PhD intention. Male researchers provide more answers to female students, while female researchers show no average gender difference. PhD intention increases male researchers’ responses to male students. It reduces female researchers’ responses to female students, driven mainly by tenured researchers.

Keywords: Gender; Behavior; Discrimination; Academia; Field Experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 73 pages
Date: 2026-10
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https://www.econtribute.de/RePEc/ajk/ajkdps/ECONtribute_439_2026.pdf First version, 2026 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:439

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