Gender Differences within the Firm

ABSTRACT

We document gender differences in the booking of business air travel among similar workers within a firm. Women pay consistently less per ticket than men after accounting for a large set of covariates. A large proportion of the lower fares paid are explained by women booking earlier. We find that gender differences increase with age but find no deviation from this trend during the childbearing years. We also find that country-level gender differences in reciprocity are associated with the documented gender differences. The documented gender differences have important monetary implications for firms and suggest an important role for workers’ morale.