Gender Differences in Economics Seminars
We assess whether men and women are treated differently when presenting their economics research. We collected data across thousands of seminars, job market talks, and conference presentations, leveraging human judgment and audio-processing algorithms to measure the number, tone, and type of interruptions. Within a seminar series, women are interrupted more than men. This holds when controlling for characteristics of the presenter, paper, and audience. Interruptions that are negative in tenor or tone or cut off the presenter mid-sentence increase for women presenters. We also find greater engagement of female audience members with female presenters, suggesting a potential role model effect. (JEL A11, C45, J16, J44)
Authors
- Justin Wolfers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7939-103X)
- Mateo Seré (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4712-8426)
- The Seminar Dynamics Collective
- Pascaline Dupas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0140-9417)
- Muriel Niederle (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4955-2186)
- Alicia Modestino (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8998-3282)
- Amy Handlan
- Haoyu Sheng
Institutions
- John Brown University (US)
- Princeton University (US)
- Stanford Medicine (US)
- Brown Computer Company (United States) (US)
- Eastern University (BD)
- Helen Newberry Joy Hospital (US)
- Northeastern School District (US)
- University College London (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- American Economic Review
- Published
- 2026-01-30
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20241718
- Primary Topic
- Innovations in Educational Methods
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00