The delayed acceptance of female research in economics

Abstract

We explore gender differences in the time taken to accept empirical articles of economics research. On average, female-authored articles take 9 % longer to accept. This gender gap cannot be fully attributed to differences in author affiliation, research productivity, research quality and novelty. The gender composition of editorial boards does not affect acceptance time for female authors. Nevertheless, this gender gap narrows as female representation in an area of research deepens. We find evidence of sub-field differences in this gender gap, consistent with differences in social norms.