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  • 2021
  • Working Paper

The Old Boys' Club: Schmoozing and the Gender Gap

By: Zoë B. Cullen and Ricardo Perez-Truglia
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
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Abstract

Offices are social places. Employees and managers take coffee breaks together, go to lunch, hang out over drinks, and talk about family and hobbies. In this study, we show that employees’ social interactions with their managers are 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. We estimate the impact of social interactions on career progression using quasi-random variation induced by the rotation of managers, along with the smoking status of managers and employees. When male employees who smoke transition to male managers who smoke, they take breaks with their managers more often and are subsequently promoted at higher rates. The smoker-to-smoker advantage is not accompanied by any differences in effort or performance. Moreover, we find that the male-to-male advantage is also only present among employees who work in close proximity to their managers, limiting the mechanism to channels requiring face-to-face interaction. The male-to-male advantage explains a third of the gender gap in promotions at this firm.

Keywords

Career; Promotions; Social Interactions; Networking; Gender; Personal Development and Career; Wages; Social and Collaborative Networks

Citation

Cullen, Zoë B., and Ricardo Perez-Truglia. "The Old Boys' Club: Schmoozing and the Gender Gap." Working Paper, June 2021. (Revise and Resubmit at the American Economic Review.)

Supplemental Information

Appendix
Online Appendix
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About The Author

Zoe B. Cullen

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

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    • March 2022
    • Journal of Political Economy

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    Increasing the Demand for Workers with a Criminal Record

    By: Zoë B. Cullen, Will Dobbie and Mitchell Hoffman
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    A Close Shave at Squire

    By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Zoë B. Cullen, William R. Kerr, Benjamin N. Roth and Michael Norris
More from the Authors
  • How Much Does Your Boss Make? The Effects of Salary Comparisons By: Zoë B. Cullen and Ricardo Perez-Truglia
  • Increasing the Demand for Workers with a Criminal Record By: Zoë B. Cullen, Will Dobbie and Mitchell Hoffman
  • A Close Shave at Squire By: Jeffrey J. Bussgang, Zoë B. Cullen, William R. Kerr, Benjamin N. Roth and Michael Norris
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