Gender Discrimination at the Top

In an study Fredrik Heyman, Pehr-Johan Norbäcka and Lars Persson show that increased product market competition can reduce discrimination against female managers. Due to the glass ceiling effect, female managers will, on average, be more skilled than male managers. Using detailed matched employee-employer data, the researchers find that:

• more intense competition leads to relatively higher wages for female managers 

• the share of female managers is higher in firms in more competitive industries