Effects of Workplace Competition on Work Time and Gender Inequality

Abstract

High-pay, high-status jobs are competitive and male-dominated and typically demand long work hours. The authors study the role of competition in producing the latter two outcomes using two field experiments. In the first, they find that paying tournament prizes for performance induces both men and women to work longer, but that men respond more than women to the high-prize tournament. In the second, men are more likely than women to choose tournament-based compensation over a wage rate for larger prizes. These results demonstrate that high-stakes workplace competition can fuel gender inequality both directly, because men are more likely to enter and win tournaments, and indirectly, by raising work hours, which hurts women who face greater time demands in household production.