Working Papers
'Some Bonuses are Bigger than Others? Earnings Pressure and the Gender Pay Gap' Job Market Paper
Abstract: This paper examines the gendered effect of financial pressures on employee compensation, focusing on managers’ pressure to meet earnings expectations. Using UK subsidiary-level data from 2017–2021, I find that the gender bonus gap increases by 4.23 percentage points in firms just meeting analyst forecasts, compared to those missing or comfortably beating expectations, even after controlling for job roles. To strengthen causal inference, I exploit an exogenous decline in analyst coverage following the MiFID II reform in a triple-differences design. Drawing on Tilly’s (1998) theory, I submit that managers may disproportionally reduce bonuses for women to achieve earnings targets when institutional constraints are weak. Consistent with this view, the effect is only observed in firms with weaker reputational (poor ESG ratings), organizational (fewer than three female directors), and regulatory (no prior labor violations) constraints.
Works in Progress
‘In the Air Tonight: Accounting-driven Increased Pollution and Respiratory Morbidity’ with Asanish Kalyanasundaram
'Connections that count?' with Ainara González de San Román, Maud Pindard-Lejarraga, and Jose Lejarraga.
'Manic Monday: Unplanned School Closures and Female Employment Outcomes' with Thomas Steffen
‘Paint it, Concrete: A New Method of Measuring Specificity’ with Chi Ian Tang