Gender discrimination? Evidence from the Belgian public accounting profession ; Discrimination liée au sexe? Observations émanant de la profession d’expertise comptable en Belgique

Abstract: Prior research finds that women receive lower salaries than men. Similarly, we show that female audit partners in Belgium receive significantly lower compensation than male partners. However, there are alternative explanations for the pay gap other than gender discrimination. For example, the gap in compensation could reflect that men are paid more because they have higher levels of productivity. We provide new predictions and tests of gender discrimination by comparing the fees generated by audit partners (a measure of partner productivity) and the types of clients assigned to partn... Mehr ...