The Old Boys' Club: Schmoozing and the Gender Gap

42 Pages Posted: 9 Dec 2019 Last revised: 10 Jul 2023

See all articles by Zoe Cullen

Zoe Cullen

Harvard University - Business School (HBS)

Ricardo Perez-Truglia

University of California, Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: December 2019

Abstract

Offices are social places. Employees and managers take breaks together and talk about family and hobbies. In this study, we show that employees’ social interactions with their managers can be advantageous for their careers, and that this phenomenon contributes to the gender pay gap. We use administrative and survey data from a large financial institution and exploit quasi-random variation induced by the rotation of managers. We provide evidence that when employees have more face-to-face interactions with their managers, they are promoted at a higher rate. This mechanism could explain a third of the gender gap in promotions at this firm.

Suggested Citation

Cullen, Zoe and Perez-Truglia, Ricardo, The Old Boys' Club: Schmoozing and the Gender Gap (December 2019). NBER Working Paper No. w26530, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3500648

Zoe Cullen (Contact Author)

Harvard University - Business School (HBS) ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=879471

Ricardo Perez-Truglia

University of California, Berkeley ( email )

310 Barrows Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

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