Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Subjective Judgment and Gender Bias in Advice: Evidence from the Laboratory

Silva Goncalves, Juliana and van Veldhuizen, Roel LU orcid (2020) In Working Papers
Abstract
Better understanding and reducing gender gaps in the labor market remains an important policy goal. We study the role of advice in sustaining these gender gaps using a laboratory experiment. In the experiment, “advisers” advise “workers” to choose between a more ambitious and a less ambitious task based on the worker’s subjective self-assessment. We expected female workers to be less confident and advisers to hold gender stereotypes, leading to a gender bias in advice. However, we find no evidence that women are less confident or that advice is gender-biased. Our results contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms driving gender differences in the labor market. They also call for caution when making general interpretations of... (More)
Better understanding and reducing gender gaps in the labor market remains an important policy goal. We study the role of advice in sustaining these gender gaps using a laboratory experiment. In the experiment, “advisers” advise “workers” to choose between a more ambitious and a less ambitious task based on the worker’s subjective self-assessment. We expected female workers to be less confident and advisers to hold gender stereotypes, leading to a gender bias in advice. However, we find no evidence that women are less confident or that advice is gender-biased. Our results contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms driving gender differences in the labor market. They also call for caution when making general interpretations of research findings pointing to a gender bias in specific settings. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
advice, subjective judgment, gender bias, C91, D91, J16
in
Working Papers
issue
2020:27
pages
57 pages
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
58d70a71-edb4-43aa-9078-62fe1720f470
date added to LUP
2020-12-16 09:52:17
date last changed
2025-04-04 14:15:17
@misc{58d70a71-edb4-43aa-9078-62fe1720f470,
  abstract     = {{Better understanding and reducing gender gaps in the labor market remains an important policy goal. We study the role of advice in sustaining these gender gaps using a laboratory experiment. In the experiment, “advisers” advise “workers” to choose between a more ambitious and a less ambitious task based on the worker’s subjective self-assessment. We expected female workers to be less confident and advisers to hold gender stereotypes, leading to a gender bias in advice. However, we find no evidence that women are less confident or that advice is gender-biased. Our results contribute to our understanding of the mechanisms driving gender differences in the labor market. They also call for caution when making general interpretations of research findings pointing to a gender bias in specific settings.}},
  author       = {{Silva Goncalves, Juliana and van Veldhuizen, Roel}},
  keywords     = {{advice; subjective judgment; gender bias; C91; D91; J16}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{12}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{2020:27}},
  series       = {{Working Papers}},
  title        = {{Subjective Judgment and Gender Bias in Advice: Evidence from the Laboratory}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/194592700/WP20_27.pdf}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}