Gender at work: Incentives and self-sorting

Abstract

This paper analyses the relationship between workers' gender and monetary incentives in an experimental setting based on a double-tournament scheme. The participants must choose between a piece-rate payment or a performance prize. The results show that women fail to reveal their type, and are less sensitive than men to the monetary incentives of the tournament. In addition, the tournament scheme induces males, but not females, to signal their ability and to select the contract which is more profitable for them.

Goals, motivation and gender

“…This paper is the first, though, to identify a gender difference: male participants thrived when presented with a non-binding goal, whereas female participants were unaffected. This result resonates with findings on gender differences in preferences (Croson and Gneezy, 2009) -in particular in the context of competition (Gneezy and Rustichini, 2004;Migheli, 2015;Niederle and Vesterlund, 2007). Future research should try to disentangle how much utility is derived from both the psychological effect of reaching a goal and the competition component (Guryan et al, 2009).…”

The Motivational Cost of Inequality: Pay Gaps Reduce the Willingness to Pursue Rewards

“…By manipulating the unfairness of offers, offer's rank and absolute reward on each trial, we were able to dissociate the influence of each of the three factors within the same individual. By doing so, we overcome a difficulty in studying these variables in the "real-world", where individuals with different traits or experiences may populate different parts of the distribution (Gelissen & de Graaf, 2006) -making it difficult to isolate the influence of these components from factors correlating with them, such as negative effects of stereotypes on aspirations (Migheli, 2015; Riegle-Crumb, Moore, & Ramos-Wada, 2011). Together, these findings suggest that individuals who are offered less than others are disadvantaged not only because the absolute reward they can possibly obtain is lower, but also because they might suffer from a motivational cost reducing the likelihood that they will puruse even those rewards that are within their reach.…”

Sustainable Development and Motivation Opportunities from the Perspective of Women in the Polish Science Sector in the Light of Statistical Data and Surveys

“…Research carried out in this area shows that pay differences can result from behaviors related to personal approach to competition and risk-taking (Booth, 2009;Migheli, 2015). Researchers point out, that financial incentives are more likely to make men work harder and signal their skills, while women tend to perform the assigned task as efficiently as they can, seemingly independently of the incentive scheme.…”

“…Researchers point out, that financial incentives are more likely to make men work harder and signal their skills, while women tend to perform the assigned task as efficiently as they can, seemingly independently of the incentive scheme. This encourages the employer to get maximum commitment from women even without incentives in the form of rewards (Migheli, 2015;Thalassinos et al, 2011). This attitude may be related to certain personality traits.…”