Glass ceiling in research: evidence from a national program in Uruguay

Daniel Bukstein and Nestor Gandelman
Additional contact information
Daniel Bukstein: Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación (Uruguay) / Universidad ORT Uruguay. Facultad de Administración y Ciencias Sociales. Departmento de Economía

No 109, Documentos de Investigación from Universidad ORT Uruguay. Facultad de Administración y Ciencias Sociales

Abstract: We present evidence that female researchers have 7.1 percentage points lower probability of being accepted into the largest national research support program in Uruguay compared to males. They also have lower research productivity than their male counterparts. Differences in observable characteristics explain 4.9 of the 7.1 percentage points gap. We show that the gender gap is wider at the higher ranks of the program consistent with the existence of a glass ceiling. The results are robust to issues of bidirectionality (impact of research productivity on the probability of accessing the program and impact of the program on research productivity), joint determination and correlation of variables (e.g. having a Ph.D., publishing and tutoring) and initial productivity effects (positive results at early stages may have long term effects on career development). We present three hypotheses for the gender gap (an original sin in the organization of the system, biases in the composition of evaluation committees, and differences in field of concentration) and find some evidence for each. Glass ceilings are stronger in the fields where females are overrepresented among the applicants to the system: Medical sciences, Natural sciences and Humanities. Finally, we present a counterfactual distribution of the program in the absence of discriminatory treatment of women and discuss the economic costs of the gender gap.

Keywords: Science and Technology; gender discrimination; glass ceiling; probability; decomposition; Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI); Uruguay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J4 J71 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2016-10
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://dspace.ort.edu.uy/bitstream/handle/20.500. ... nvestigacion-109.pdf (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found

Related works:
Journal Article: Glass ceilings in research: Evidence from a national program in Uruguay (2019)
Working Paper: Glass Ceiling in Research: Evidence from a National Program in Uruguay (2017)
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:avs:wpaper:109

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Documentos de Investigación from Universidad ORT Uruguay. Facultad de Administración y Ciencias Sociales Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Verónica Rodríguez ().