Gender, Performance, and Promotion in the Labor Market for Commercial Bankers

Using data from the US syndicated loan market, we find women to be underrepresented among senior commercial bankers. This gap persists due to unequal promotion rates for men and women at the same institution in the same year, and cannot be explained by different individual or managerial performance. The gap is influenced more by individuals than by institutions, with senior bankers showing assortative matching when changing jobs, and perpetuating the gender gap from their previous workplace. Our findings suggest that the gender gap may be partially attributable to women taking on more family care responsibilities. Hard credentials or female leadership at the top of banks do not alleviate the gender gap, but targeted gender discrimination lawsuits and female leadership on the local level result in increased promotion of women. JEL Classifications: D22, G21, G32, J01, J71 ∗We thank Renée Adams (discussant), Ralph de Haas, Kornelia Fabisik (discussant), Janet Gao (discussant), Alexandra Niessen-Ruenzi, Stefano Ramelli, Victor Schauer (discussant), Paul Smeets, Alexander F. Wagner, and Leah Zimmerer (discussant) for helpful discussions, and conference and seminar participants at the American Finance Association, European Economic Association, Helsinki Finance Summit, GRASFI, DGF, BFGA, KVS, Benelux Banking Research Day, SFI Research Days, Emory University, Maastricht University, University of Zurich, University of Sydney, ESCP, University of Groningen, University of Amsterdam, Utrecht University, VU Amsterdam, and TBS for helpful comments and suggestions. †Maastricht University, School of Business and Economics, Tongersestraat 53, 6211 LM Maastricht, Netherlands; m.ceccarelli@maastrichtuniversity.nl. ‡Emory University, Goizueta Business School, 1300 Clifton Road, 30322 Atlanta, Georgia, USA; christoph.herpfer@emory.edu. §University of Zurich, Swiss Finance Institute, KU Leuven, NTNU Business School, and CEPR, Plattenstrasse 14, Zurich 8032, Switzerland; steven.ongena@uzh.ch.