← Search

Do Job Networks Disadvantage Women? Evidence from a Recruitment Experiment in Malawi

Lori Beaman¹; Niall Keleher^2,3; Jeremy Magruder³

¹ Northwestern University · ² Innovations for Poverty Action · ³ University of California, Berkeley

We use a field experiment to show that referral-based hiring has the potential to disadvantage qualified women, highlighting another potential channel behind gender disparities in the labor market. Through a recruitment drive for a firm in Malawi, we look at men’s and women’s referral choices under different incentives and constraints. We find that men systematically refer few women, despite being able to refer qualified women when explicitly asked for female candidates. Performance pay also did not alter men’s tendencies to refer men. In addition, women did not refer enough high-quality women to offset men’s behavior.

DOI

10.1086/693869

Volume

36 (1)

Pages

121-157

Language

en

Export

BibTeX

Sources

openalex crossref