Gender and the Dynamics of Economics Seminars

We provide the first systematic attempt at quantitatively measuring the seminar culture within economics and testing whether it is gender neutral. We collected data on every interaction between presenters and their audience in hundreds of research seminars and job market talks and during one summer conference series. We find that even after including rich controls women presenters are asked more questions and the questions asked of women are more likely to be patronizing or hostile. Our findings add to an emerging literature documenting ways in which women in economics are treated differently than men.