Gender and Executive Job Mobility: Evidence from Mergers and Acquisitions
68 Pages Posted: 19 Jun 2020
Date Written: May 23, 2020
Abstract
The increasing presence of women in executive positions has fostered interest in understanding how men and women fare in the managerial labor market. We examine gender differences in managerial job mobility by focusing on managers displaced (almost 90%) when their firms are acquired. Comparing labor market outcomes for similarly-ranked managers from the same target firm and within the same functional area, we find that career disruption results in a larger drop in rank for female managers, despite similar job search efforts. Gender differences are moderated for managers hired by firms with more women in upper echelon positions. Women with rich prior managerial experience and service on external boards also fare well. Our results point to a significant (implicit) ‘gender penalty’ for women in terms of managerial job mobility, but also indicate contexts in which the penalty may be alleviated, and even reversed.
Keywords: executive gender, job mobility, mergers and acquisitions, implicit gender bias, labor market
JEL Classification: G34, J71, J63
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation