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Peer Effects and the Gender Gap in Corporate Leadership: Evidence from MBA Students

Ashley Wong
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Peer Effects and the Gender Gap in Corporate Leadership: Evidence from MBA Students

Ashley Wong (Tilburg University)

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ABSTRACT:

Women continue to be underrepresented in corporate leadership positions. This paper studies the role of social connections in women's career advancement. We investigate whether access to a larger share of female peers in business school affects the gender gap in senior managerial positions. Merging administrative data from a top-10 US business school with public LinkedIn profiles, we first document that female MBAs are 24 percent less likely than male MBAs to enter senior management within 15 years of graduation. Next, we use the exogenous assignment of students into sections to show that a larger proportion of female MBA section peers increases the likelihood of entering senior management for women but not for men. This effect is driven by female-friendly firms, such as those with more generous maternity leave policies and greater work schedule flexibility. A larger proportion of female MBA peers induces women to transition to these firms where they attain senior management roles. We find suggestive evidence that some of the mechanisms behind these results include job referrals and gender-specific information transmission. These findings highlight the role of social connections in reducing the gender gap in senior management positions.

BIO:

Ashley Wong is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Tilburg University. Her research focuses on labor and gender economics with particular interests in topics of diversity and innovation. She is an invited researcher at J-PAL’s Science for Progress Initiative (SfPI) and a CESifo Research Network Affiliate Member. Previously, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). In 2024, She was awarded the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship.