Author׳s gender affects rating of academic articles: Evidence from an incentivized, deception-free laboratory experiment

Michal Krawczyk and Magdalena Smyk

European Economic Review, 2016, vol. 90, issue C, 326-335

Abstract: Even though women׳s position in academia has changed dramatically over the last few decades, there is still some evidence that when it comes to evaluation of scientific achievements, gender may play a significant role. Gender bias is particularly likely to take the form of statistical discrimination. In this study we sought to verify the hypothesis that researcher׳s gender affects evaluation of his or her work, especially in a field where women only represent a minority. Towards this end we asked a sample of subjects, mostly economics majors, to evaluate a paper written by mixed-gender couples, indicating that it was (co-)authored by a “female economist”, “male economist”, “young female economist” or “young male economist” or giving no information about the author at all. While age factor played no role, female authors appeared to be seen as less competent than males, in that subjects (being incentivized to give their best judgment) less often believed that their papers have been published. This effect did not interact strongly with the gender of the subject.

Keywords: Gender equality; Women in science; Laboratory experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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Working Paper: Author's gender affects the rating of academic articles: Evidence from an incentivized, deception-free laboratory experiment (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:90:y:2016:i:c:p:326-335

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2016.02.017

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