Gender differences in the propensity to apply for promotion: evidence from the Italian Scientific Qualification

Abstract

We analyse gender differences in the propensity to apply for academic promotion credentials in Italy exploiting a new national credential granting system with randomly assigned committee members. Controlling for productivity and a number of individual and field characteristics, we find that women have a lower probability of applying for promotion of about 4 percentage points. The determinants of this gap seem to be gender differences in risk-aversion and self-confidence as well as women’s fear of discrimination: the lower tendency to apply is especially relevant for women in the lower tail of the distribution of scientific productivity and in fields in which productivity is not easily measurable; furthermore, women are less likely to apply for promotion in fields in which promotions of women in the past were rare.