On the Cultural Basis of Gender Differences in Negotiation

We study the nature versus nurture distinction in bargaining behavior across gender, by observing the negotiation culture in matrilineal and patriarchal societies. Combining data from a laboratory experiment and a natural field experiment conducted in matrilineal and patriarchal societies permits us to explore how culture affects bargaining behavior. 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. JEL: C93, D03, J16.