Recognition for Group Work: Gender Differences in Academia

TLDR: The authors used data on academic publication records to test whether demographic traits like gender influence how credit is allocated under such uncertainty, finding that men are tenured at roughly the same rate regardless of coauthoring choices, while women are less likely to receive tenure the more they coauthor.

Abstract: How is credit for group work allocated when individual contributions are not observed? I use data on academics' publication records to test whether demographic traits like gender influence how credit is allocated under such uncertainty While solo-authored papers send a clear signal about ability, coauthored papers are noisy, providing no specific information about each contributor's skills I find that men are tenured at roughly the same rate regardless of coauthoring choices Women, however, are less likely to receive tenure the more they coauthor The result is much less pronounced among women who coauthor with other women