The gender pay gap at the top: the role of networks

Sharmin Sazedj and José Tavares

Working Papers from Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department

Abstract: This paper assesses the relevance of professional networks for the gender pay gap amongst top managers. Using data on the universe of firms in Portugal, we show that female top managersearn 25% less than their male counterparts, and that 20% of this gap is due to differences in networks. Using Gelbach’s decomposition, we find that the network effect can be ascribed to firm sorting, i.e. well-connected managers tend to be associated to higher paying firms. By examining the gender composition and the type of connections of top manager networks,we find that same gender connections are important. We conclude that connections between females can play an important role in the existing corporate framework where males areoverrepresented, and thus policies furthering female representation in leadership positions can have positive spillover effects for other women.

JEL-codes: J16 J24 J30 L14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm, nep-net and nep-soc
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ptu:wpaper:w202423

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