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Breaking the glass ceiling? : the effect of board quotas on female labor market outcomes in Norway

Bertrand, Marianne; Black, Sandra E.; Jensen, Sissel; Lleras-Muney, Adriana
Working paper
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URI
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/217672
Date
2014-08
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  • Discussion papers (SAM) [638]
Abstract
In late 2003, Norway passed a law mandating 40 percent representation of each gender on the

board of publicly limited liability companies. The primary objective of this reform was to

increase the representation of women in top positions in the corporate sector and decrease gender

disparity in earnings within that sector. We document that the newly (post-reform) appointed

female board members were observably more qualified than their female predecessors, and that

the gender gap in earnings within boards fell substantially. While the reform may have improved

the representation of female employees at the very top of the earnings distribution (top 5 highest

earners) within firms that were mandated to increase female participation on their board, there is

no evidence that these gains at the very top trickled-down. Moreover the reform had no obvious

impact on highly qualified women whose qualifications mirror those of board members but who

were not appointed to boards. We observe no statistically significant change in the gender wage

gaps or in female representation in top positions, although standard errors are large enough that

we cannot rule economically meaningful gains. Finally, there is little evidence that the reform

affected the decisions of women more generally; it was not accompanied by any change in female

enrollment in business education programs, or a convergence in earnings trajectories between

recent male and female graduates of such programs. While young women preparing for a career

in business report being aware of the reform and expect their earnings and promotion chances to

benefit from it, the reform did not affect their fertility and marital plans. Overall, in the short run

the reform had very little discernible impact on women in business beyond its direct effect on the

newly appointed female board members.
Publisher
Norwegian School of Economics. Department of Economics
Series
Discussion paper;28/2014

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