Does the gig economy discriminate against women? Evidence from physicians in China

Abstract

This paper investigates gender gaps in the gig economy of a developing country. Using novel data from a major Chinese online healthcare platform, I show that female physicians charge 2.3% lower prices and provide 11.0% fewer consultations than males. Patients appear to discriminate against female physicians despite them having identical observable productive characteristics to those of male physicians. The differential responses of patients to quality signals from female physicians suggest that a portion of this discrimination is statistical in nature. I further find that the platform’s design, particularly its ranking algorithm, plays an important role in enlarging gender gaps. The ranking algorithm amplifies and perpetuates the gaps by using past patient behavior (and thus pre-existing discrimination) as a key predictor of future patient behavior, thereby placing fewer females at the top of search results. Additionally, I cast doubt on several other alternative explanations and conducted a series of robustness checks.