Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/128594 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
DICE Discussion Paper No. 213
Publisher: 
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE), Düsseldorf
Abstract: 
We show that choices in competitive behavior may entail a gender wage gap. In our experi ments, employees first choose a remuneration scheme (competitive tournament vs. piece rate) and then conduct a real-effort task. Employers know the pie size the employee has generated, the remuneration scheme chosen, and the employee's gender. Employers then decide how the pie will be split, as in a dictator game. Whereas employers do not discriminate by gender when tournaments are chosen, they take substantially and significantly more from female employees who choose piece-rate remuneration. A discriminatory wage gap occurs which cannot be attributed to employees' performance.
Subjects: 
dictator game
discrimination
gender wage gap
laboratory experiment
real-effort task
JEL: 
C91
J16
M52
ISBN: 
978-3-86304-212-7
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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