Socially gainful gender quotas

Oded Stark and Walter Hyll

No 71, University of Tübingen Working Papers in Business and Economics from University of Tuebingen, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, School of Business and Economics

Abstract: We study the impact of gender quotas on the acquisition of human capital. We assume that individuals' formation of human capital is influenced by the prospect of landing high-pay top positions, and that these positions are regulated by gender-specific quotas. In the absence of quotas, women consider their chances of getting top positions to be lower than men's. The lure of top positions induces even men of relatively low ability to engage in human capital formation, whereas women of relatively high ability do not expect to get top positions and do not therefore engage in human capital formation. Gender quotas discourage men who are less efficient in forming human capital, and encourage women who are more efficient in forming human capital. We provide a condition under which the net result of the institution of gender quotas is an increase in human capital in the economy as a whole.

Keywords: Gender quotas; Affirmative action; Human capital formation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D01 D21 J16 J24 J70 M51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Journal Article: Socially gainful gender quotas (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:tuewef:71

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