On the Cultural Basis of Gender Differences in Negotiation

Steffen Andersen, Seda Ertac, Uri Gneezy, John List, Sandra Maximiano

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

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.
Original languageEnglish
JournalExperimental Economics
Volume21
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)757-778
Number of pages22
ISSN1386-4157
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2018

Bibliographical note

Published online: 1. November 2017

Keywords

  • Gender
  • Bargaining
  • Field experiments
  • Culture

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