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Are women less effective leaders than men? Evidence from experiments using coordination games

Heursen, Lea ; Ranehill, Eva LU and Weber, Roberto A. (2023) In Discussion Paper p.1-46
Abstract
We study whether one reason behind female underrepresentation in leadership is that female leaders are less effective at coordinating followers’ actions. Two experiments using coordination games investigate whether female leaders are less successful than males in
persuading followers to coordinate on efficient equilibria. In these settings, successful coordination hinges on higher-order beliefs about the leader’s capacity to convince followersto pursue desired actions, making beliefs that women are less effective leaders potentially selfconfirming. We find no evidence that such bias impacts actual leadership performance, precisely estimating the absence of a gender leadership gap. We further show that this result is surprising given... (More)
We study whether one reason behind female underrepresentation in leadership is that female leaders are less effective at coordinating followers’ actions. Two experiments using coordination games investigate whether female leaders are less successful than males in
persuading followers to coordinate on efficient equilibria. In these settings, successful coordination hinges on higher-order beliefs about the leader’s capacity to convince followersto pursue desired actions, making beliefs that women are less effective leaders potentially selfconfirming. We find no evidence that such bias impacts actual leadership performance, precisely estimating the absence of a gender leadership gap. We further show that this result is surprising given experts’ priors. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
keywords
gender, coordination games, leadership, experiment, D23, C72, C92, J1
in
Discussion Paper
issue
472
pages
1 - 46
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
de4472fa-fdf5-40ad-990b-97a41a656e6b
alternative location
https://hdl.handle.net/10419/282163
date added to LUP
2025-02-28 15:05:58
date last changed
2025-04-04 15:29:15
@misc{de4472fa-fdf5-40ad-990b-97a41a656e6b,
  abstract     = {{We study whether one reason behind female underrepresentation in leadership is that female leaders are less effective at coordinating followers’ actions. Two experiments using coordination games investigate whether female leaders are less successful than males in <br/>persuading followers to coordinate on efficient equilibria. In these settings, successful coordination hinges on higher-order beliefs about the leader’s capacity to convince followersto pursue desired actions, making beliefs that women are less effective leaders potentially selfconfirming. We find no evidence that such bias impacts actual leadership performance, precisely estimating the absence of a gender leadership gap. We further show that this result is surprising given experts’ priors.}},
  author       = {{Heursen, Lea and Ranehill, Eva and Weber, Roberto A.}},
  keywords     = {{gender; coordination games; leadership; experiment; D23; C72; C92; J1}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{472}},
  pages        = {{1--46}},
  series       = {{Discussion Paper}},
  title        = {{Are women less effective leaders than men? Evidence from experiments using coordination games}},
  url          = {{https://hdl.handle.net/10419/282163}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}