When Managers Choose: Gender Disparities in Employer Training Provision

Marco Caliendo (), Deborah A. Cobb-Clark, Katrin Huber, Harald Pfeifer, Arne Uhlendorff and Sophie Wagner
Additional contact information
Marco Caliendo: University of Potsdam, CEPA, BSoE, IZA, DIW, IAB, Potsdam, Germany
Deborah A. Cobb-Clark: University of Sydney, IZA, ARC, Sydney, Australia
Katrin Huber: University of Potsdam, CEPA, BSoE, IZA, Potsdam, Germany
Harald Pfeifer: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) Bonn, Germany
Arne Uhlendorff: CREST, CNRS, IP Paris, IAB, Palaiseau, France
Sophie Wagner: University of Potsdam, CEPA, Potsdam, Germany

No 2025-10, Working Papers from Center for Research in Economics and Statistics

Abstract: We examine how gender shapes managers’ decisions regarding on-the-job training using a discrete choice experiment embedded in a representative survey of German firms. While previous research on training has focused on employees’ demand for it, we make a contribution by studying firms’ supply of training. In our vignette study, 1,144 managers evaluate hypothetical candidate profiles that differ by gender, age, competence, job mobility, and training characteristics. We find that women are somewhat more likely than men to receive training offers. The exceptions are that female managers are more reluctant to choose young women for training, while male managers favor male candidates for fully employer-funded training. These patterns persist across various model specifications and remain robust when controlling for observable manager characteristics. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that female managers are more reluctant to offer training to women when they operate in competitive product markets, male-dominated industries, and firms without collective bargaining agreements. More broadly, our results highlight that managers influence not only how much training is undertaken, but also how training opportunities are distributed among employees. This has the potential to create gender disparities in early career development that may have implications for organizational equity.

Keywords: Gender Differences; Manager Decisions; Human Capital Investment; Training. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J24 M53 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 83 pages
Date: 2025-07-16
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://crest.science/RePEc/wpstorage/2025-10.pdf CREST working paper version (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:crs:wpaper:2025-10

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Center for Research in Economics and Statistics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Secretariat General () and Murielle Jules Maintainer-Email : murielle.jules@ensae.Fr.