Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/322120 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
Quaderni - Working Paper DSE No. 1202
Publisher: 
Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche (DSE), Bologna
Abstract: 
Firm performance depends critically on the efficient allocation of tasks across employees. Yet, task assignment decisions are often shaped not only by productivity considerations but also by managerial biases and gender stereotypes-frequently resulting in women being disproportionately assigned lowpromotability, female-stereotyped tasks. This paper investigates whether making workers' task preferences visible to managers can reduce gender-stereotypical assignments and improve overall outcomes. We conduct two complementary experiments. In the first, participants act as workers, completing real-effort tasks and reporting their task preferences. In the second, a separate group of participants from the same subject pool takes on the role of managers and assigns tasks to pairs of workers under varying information conditions. In the control condition-where managers lack access to workers' preferences-task assignments are more likely to reflect gender stereotypes. In contrast, when managers are informed of workers' preferences, stereotypical assignments decrease, and managerial earnings improve. We also find that preference-informed task allocation leads to higher managerial earnings, suggesting that reducing gender bias not only promotes fairness but also enhances organizational efficiency. Our findings highlight the potential of low-cost informational interventions to promote fairer and more effective task allocation practices.
Subjects: 
Gender stereotypes
task allocation
managerial decision-making
labor market discrimination
experimental economics
JEL: 
J16
J71
M12
C91
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.