The gender gap among top business executives

This paper examines gender differences among top US business executives using a large executive-employer matched data set spanning the last quarter century. Female make up 6% of sample and exhibit more labor market churning – both higher entry exit rates. Unconditionally, women earn 26% less than men, which decreases to 8% once executive characteristics, firm in particular job title are accounted for. We find that female disproportionately represented firms with temporal flexibility female-friendly corporate cultures, but this does not explain pay gap. Rather, culture is correlated gaps within firms; specifically within-firm gap significantly smaller at firms.