The Price of Promotion: Gender Differences in the Impact of Career Success on Divorce

Time: 
25.04.2016 - 12:00 to 13:30
Location : 
A 5,6 Raum A 231
Type of Event : 
AB B-Kolloquium
Lecturer: 
Johanna Rickne, Ph.D.
Lecturer affiliation: 
Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Stockholm
Description: 
This paper provides novel evidence of why women are under-represented on positions on positions of power and status. We show that being promoted to a top position in an organization increases the divorce risk for women and reduces the divorce risk for men. The causal identification of this effect relies on exogenous variation in promotions in the political sector, but we also provide corroboration from CEO promotions, medical doctors, and other professions. We test several explanations for the gender inequality in divorce risks. The most likely explanation is that men benefit from gender-specialized single-earner households, while women do not.