The Gender Gap Among Top Business Executives

Wolfgang Keller, Teresa Molina and William Olney

No 202024, Working Papers from University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper examines gender differences among top business executives using a large executive-employer matched data set spanning the last quarter century. Female executives make up 6.2% of the sample and we find they exhibit more labor market churning – both higher entry and higher exit rates. Unconditionally, women earn 26% less than men, which decreases to 7.9% once executive characteristics, firm characteristics, and in particular job title are accounted for. The paper explores the extent to which firm-level temporal flexibility and corporate culture can explain these gender differences. Although we find that women tend to select into firms with temporal flexibility and a female-friendly corporate culture, there is no evidence that this sorting drives the gender pay gap. However, we do find evidence that corporate culture affects pay gaps within firms: the within-firm gender pay gap disappears entirely at female-friendly firms. Overall, while both corporate culture and flexibility affect the female share of employment, only corporate culture influences the gender pay gap.

Keywords: Women; Executive Compensation; Gender Pay Gap; Corporate Culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F16 J16 J24 J33 J82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-ent, nep-hrm and nep-isf
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http://www.economics.hawaii.edu/research/workingpapers/WP_20-24.pdf First version, 2020 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The gender gap among top business executives (2023)
Working Paper: The Gender Gap Among Top Business Executives (2020)
Working Paper: The Gender Gap Among Top Business Executives (2020)
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