The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion

Christine L. Exley and Judd B. Kessler

No 26345, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: In applications, interviews, performance reviews, and many other environments, individuals subjectively describe their ability and performance to others. We run a series of experiments, involving over 4,000 participants from online labor markets and over 10,000 school-aged youth. We find a large gender gap in self-promotion: Women subjectively describe their ability and performance to potential employers less favorably than equally performing men. Even when all incentives to promote are removed, however, the gender gap remains. The gender gap in self-promotion is reflective of an underlying gender gap in how individuals subjectively evaluate their own performance. This underlying gender gap proves persistent and arises as early as the sixth grade.

JEL-codes: C91 D90 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-gen, nep-hrm and nep-lab
Note: ED LS
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Published as Christine L Exley & Judd B Kessler, 2022. "The Gender Gap in Self-Promotion," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol 137(3), pages 1345-1381.

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