Closing the gender gap in academia? Evidence from an affirmative action program
研究德国一项基于激励的平权行动计划，发现参与该计划的大学中女性新晋终身教授比例更高，且该计划降低了女性在发表记录方面的入职门槛，同时未对男性产生负面影响。
This study investigates a unique incentive-based affirmative action program in Germany’s academic labor market. By analyzing a sample of business administration professors, we document that the probability that a newly tenured professor is female increases at universities that participate in this government program compared to universities that do not. By delving deeper into the mechanisms of the program, we show that program universities lowered the entry barrier for tenured professorships regarding publication records for new female professors. While favoring women, we show that the program had no harmful effects on male professors regarding the entry barrier to tenured professorships. Overall, we provide evidence of the effectiveness of financial incentives as a means of reducing female underrepresentation in academic labor markets.