The gender gap in top jobs – The role of overconfidence

There is a large gender gap in the probability of being “top job” mid-career. Top jobs bring higher earnings, and also have more job security better career trajectories. Recent literature has raised possibility that some this may be attributable to women not “leaning in” while men are overconfident their abilities. We use longitudinal data from childhood into mid-career construct measure overconfidence using multiple measures objective cognitive ability subjective estimated ability. Our confirms previous findings than women. then linear regression decomposition techniques account for top including our overconfidence. results show explains 5–11 percent employment. This indicates matters inequality labor market implications how firms recruit promote workers, other individual, structural, societal factors play larger role.