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On the cultural basis of gender differences in negotiation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Steffen Andersen ,
Seda Ertac ,
Uri Gneezy ,
John A. List  and
Sandra Maximiano
Steffen Andersen*
Affiliation:
Department of Finance, Copenhagen Business School, Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark CPER, Washington, DC, USA
Seda Ertac*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Koc University, 34450 Rumeli Feneri Yolu, Sariyer, Istanbul, Turkey
Uri Gneezy*
Affiliation:
Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, 92093 La Jolla, CA, USA
John A. List*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Chicago, 1126 E. 59th St., 60637 Chicago, IL, USA NBER, Cambridge, MA, USA
Sandra Maximiano*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics & Management, University of Lisbon, Rua Miguel Lupi, 20, 1200-781 Lisboa, Portugal
*
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
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Abstract

We study how culture and social structure influence bargaining behavior across gender, by exploring the negotiation culture in matrilineal and patriarchal societies using data from a laboratory experiment and a natural field experiment. One interesting result is that in both the actual marketplace and in the laboratory bargaining game, women in the matrilineal society earn more than men, at odds with years of evidence observed in the western world. We find that this result is critically driven by which side of the market the person is occupying: female (male) sellers in the matrilineal (patriarchal) society extract more of the bargaining surplus than male (female) sellers. In the buyer role, however, we observe no significant differences across societies.

Keywords

GenderBargainingField experimentsCulture

JEL classification

C93: Field Experiments J16: Economics of Gender • Non-labor Discrimination
Type
Original Paper
Information
Experimental Economics , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , December 2018 , pp. 757 - 778
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Economic Science Association

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Footnotes

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-017-9547-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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