Interpreting Signals in the Labor Market: Evidence from Medical Referrals, by Heather Sarsons
▻https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/sarsons/files/sarsons_jmp.pdf
This paper provides evidence that a person’s gender influences the way others interpret information about his or her ability and documents the implications for gender inequality in labor markets. Using data on primary care physicians’ (PCPs) referrals to surgeons, I find that PCPs view patient outcomes differently depending on the per-
forming surgeon’s gender. PCPs become more pessimistic about a female surgeon’s ability than a male’s after a patient death, indicated by a sharper drop in referrals to the female surgeon. However, PCPs become more optimistic about a male surgeon’s ability after a good patient outcome, indicated by a larger increase in the number of
referrals the male surgeon receives. PCPs also change their behavior toward other female surgeons after a bad experience with one female surgeon, becoming less likely to refer to new women in the same specialty. There are no such spillovers to other men after a bad experience with one male surgeon