Using Social Recognition to Address the Gender Difference in Volunteering for Low Promotability Tasks

Ritwik Banerjee and Priyoma Mustafi
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Priyoma Mustafi: University of Pittsburgh

No 13956, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Research shows that women volunteer significantly more for tasks that people prefer others to complete. Such tasks carry little monetary incentives because of their very nature. We use a modified version of the volunteer's dilemma game to examine if non-monetary interventions, particularly, social recognition can be used to change the gender norms associated with such tasks. We design three treatments, where a) a volunteer receives positive social recognition, b) a non-volunteer receives negative social recognition, and c) a volunteer receives positive, but a non-volunteer receives negative social recognition. Our results indicate that competition for social recognition increases the overall likelihood that someone in a group has volunteered. Positive social recognition closes the gender gap observed in the baseline treatment, so does the combination of positive and negative social recognition. Our results, consistent with the prior literature on gender differences in competition, suggest that public recognition of volunteering can change the default gender norms in organizations and increase efficiency at the same time.

Keywords: gender; social recognition; volunteering; low promotability tasks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 J16 J71 M12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2020-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-lab and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Working Paper: Using social recognition to address the gender difference in volunteering for low-promotability tasks (2020)
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