Gender Differences in Negotiation and Job Search: Evidence from Business Majors

这项研究项目使用复杂的研究方法来探索性别在三个具体行为特征上的差异？愿意谈判、自信和避险吗？影响求职行为，从而影响人才市场的收入。尽管女性在教育和劳动力市场取得了长足进步，但收入方面的性别差距，特别是高技能人群的收入差距仍然存在。该项目侧重于不那么传统的解释，例如男女在求职过程中偏好和信仰的系统性差异在解释观察到的性别工资差距方面的作用。这项拟议的研究将基于对波士顿大学商学院应届毕业生的调查。这是第一次使用这种独特的方法来解释职业生涯开始时的性别工资差距的研究。这项研究的见解可以帮助个人在求职过程中做出明智的决定，并使政策制定者能够设计更有效的政策干预措施，以解决劳动力市场的性别差距。这项研究由两个项目组成，调查了谈判意愿、过度自信和风险厌恶对观察到的性别工资差距的影响。研究人员对波士顿大学S·奎斯特罗姆商学院的应届本科生进行了一项大规模的谈判和工作行为调查。第一个项目的动机是经验性的观察，即妇女在各种环境中谈判的可能性较小。PIS将使用随机现场试验来评估提供关于谈判率和谈判有效性的性别差异的信息是否有效，以缩小谈判中的性别差距，并在当前Questrom商科毕业生中开始支付工资。PI还将收集实验测量的特征，以揭示信息影响毕业生的渠道。第二个项目利用校友调查中关于工作机会和接受程度的信息，研究风险偏好、过度自信和求职行为之间的相互作用，以及由此对性别收入差距的影响。由于求职是一个动态的过程，涉及不确定性，偏好和信念上的性别差异可能会导致求职行为和起薪的性别差异。这个项目将建立关于求职过程中性别差异的基本事实，并探索这些差异与风险偏好和过度自信的性别差异之间的关系。PIS还将在实验室进行连续的求职实验，以了解劳动力市场结果中的性别差距如何在不同的机制下演变。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research project uses sophisticated research methods to explore how gender differences in three specific behavioral traits ? willingness to negotiate, confidence, and risk aversion ? affect job search behavior and, therefore earnings in the marketplace for talented individuals. Despite considerable advances by women in education and the labor market, gender gaps in earnings, particularly among the highly-skilled, continue to persist. This project focuses on less traditional explanations, such as the role of systematic differences in preferences and beliefs between men and women in the job search process in explaining the observed gender wage gaps. The proposed research will be based on a survey of recent business school graduates of Boston University. This is the first study that uses this unique approach to explain the gender wage gap at the beginning of careers. The insights from this research can help individuals make informed decisions in the job search process and enable policymakers to design more effective policy interventions to tackle gender disparities in the labor market. The findings also have implications for how to improve the job search process, such as design of effective recruiting policies and informational interventionsThis research, consisting of two projects, investigates the effects of willingness to negotiate, overconfidence, and risk aversion on the observed gender wage gap. It is based on a large-scale survey of negotiation and job behavior that the researchers conducted among recent undergraduate alumni from Boston University?s Questrom school of Business. The first project is motivated by the empirical observation that women are less likely to negotiate in a variety of settings. The PIs will use a randomized field experiment to assess whether providing information about gender differences in negotiation rates and the efficacy of negotiation is effective in closing the gender gap in negotiation and starting pay among current Questrom business graduates. The PIs will also collect experimentally measured traits to reveal channels through which information impacts graduates. The second project utilizes information on job offers and acceptances from the alumni survey to study the interactions among risk preferences, overconfidence, and job search behavior, and the resulting impact on the gender earnings gap. Because job search is a dynamic process that involves uncertainty, gender differences in preferences and beliefs are likely to lead to gender differences in job search behavior and starting salaries. This project will establish basic facts about gender differences in the job search process, and explore how these relate to gender differences in risk preferences and overconfidence. The PIs will also conduct sequential job search experiments in the laboratory to understand how gender gaps in labor market outcomes evolve under different mechanisms.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.