Organizational Behavior Area Research Seminar Series: Adina Sterling
Adina Sterling
Columbia Business School
Breaking Down Information Inequality: Evidence from a Field Experiment in the Technology Industry
Date: Friday, February 28, 2025
Time: 10:30 AM -12:00 PM
Location: Armstrong building, room 260
All are cordially invited to attend.
Abstract:
The under-representation of women within the technology sector has long been recognized, and this has prompted the information provided on job search platforms to be a focus as a potential remedy. In this study, we hypothesize that gender-specific data offers valuable insights to numerical minorities, but does so at the expense of reducing the perceived level of general information. We conduct a randomized experiment on a professional job search platform to examine the potential effect of this trade-off on job search for technology workers. Our findings reveal that the inclusion of gender-specific information derived from employee surveys diminishes user engagement on the platform for all users, albeit with a less pronounced effect for women compared to men. Women exhibit a (relatively heightened) interest in disaggregated job market information compared to men, suggesting support for a nuanced perspective on the informational value of gender-specific information in job search.
