Potential in-group bias at work: Evidence from performance evaluations
利用校长对教师的课堂观察评估数据，研究发现女校长给女教师的评分比男校长高0.19个标准差，表明上级倾向于偏袒同性别下属。
This paper investigates the existence of in-group bias (preferential treatment of one’s own group) in performance evaluations. Drawing information from an educational setting and employing a unique dataset, we use principals’ observational assessment of teachers to examine the impact of gender interactions on evaluation of employees. Our results indicate that average classroom observation ratings for female teachers, relative to males, were 0.19 of a standard deviation higher when they were evaluated by female principals. We explore the mechanisms and present convincing sets of results consistent with the tendency of superiors to favor same-gender subordinates. Several robustness checks and different placebo tests support our findings.