The Weight of Expectation: Behavioral Evidence on Gender Norm Enforcement

Alejandra Villegas
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Alejandra Villegas: Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de Mexico

No 110, GRAPE Working Papers from GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics

Abstract: This study examines how gender norms are enforced through social sanctions using an online experiment in the Sierra Nororiental of Puebla, Mexico. Combining norm elicitation tasks and a dictator game, it analyzes how participants react to norm compliance and deviation in the division of unpaid domestic labor. Results indicate that sanctioning behavior varies by the gender of both the evaluator and the norm violator, revealing a hierarchical and gendered enforcement structure. The study also identified a discrepancy between self-declared attitudes and behavioral responses: although many participants claimed to support gender equality, they penalized behaviors aligned with that position when those behaviors were perceived as norm violations. These insights have implications for policy interventions aimed at promoting gender equality, suggesting that effective change requires shifting the social expectations and sanctioning logics that underpin persistent inequalities.der board diversity is associated with a 0.75 percentage point rise in the labor share. The effect is stronger in services, in smaller firms, and among firms with persistently low productivity. A counterfactual analysis demonstrates a high semi-elasticity of employment as the driving mechanism behind these findings.

Keywords: gender norms; social expectations; punishment; experimental economics; unpaid care and domestic work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 J16 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2025
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-lab and nep-soc
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