We conduct a real-effort experiment where participants choose between individual compensation and team-based pay. We find that women are more likely than men to select team-based compensation in our baseline treatment, but women and men join teams with equal frequency when we add an efficiency advantage to team production. Using a simple structural framework to reconcile these facts, we show that three elements can account for the observed patterns: (1) a gender gap in overconfidence, (2) a greater responsiveness among men to instrumental reasons for joining teams, and (3) a greater “pure” preference for the team environment among women. |
