TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Cieply, Isea
AU  - Barros, Laura
AU  - Silbersdorff, Alexander
AU  - Kneib, Thomas
AU  - Kis-Katos, Krisztina
        TI  - Why Female Professors Earn Less: The Role of Retention Negotiations and Performance Bonuses
        PY  - 2026/Feb/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18376
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp18376
        AB  - How large is the gender pay gap among university professors, and how do institutional pay-setting mechanisms shape this disparity? This paper provides novel empirical evidence on the gender pay gap among professors at a renowned German university. Using detailed human resources data for the time span 2013 to 2021, we document a statistically significant conditional gender pay gap in professorial salaries of 5.2%, after controlling for employment characteristics, socio-demographics, performance measures, and faculty and year fixed effects. Our findings show that these differentials can be attributed mainly to lower returns from retention negotiations, which have a particularly strong impact during the earlier stages of academic careers. These results highlight the importance of pay system designs in promoting gender equity in academia.
        KW  - gender pay gap
KW  - gender economics
KW  - wage differentials
KW  - wage negotiations
KW  - professorial salaries
        ER  -