Endogenously emerging gender pay gap in an experimental teamwork setting (Q1712179)

Summary: We studied gender diversity and performance in endogenously formed teams in a repeated teamwork setting. In our experiment, the participants (\(N=168\), 84 women and 84 men) chose whether to perform a cooperative task only with members of the own gender or in a mixed-gender team. We found that independent of the choice of team, in the initial period, men contributed significantly more to the team projects than women. Men preferred the successful men-only teams in the subsequent periods, resulting in significantly higher profits for men compared to women. This endogenously emerging ``gender pay gap'' only closed over time.