Glass Ceiling Effects: The Case of Taiwanese Top Executives

Abstract

Gender discrimination in labor markets has been an important issue in labor economics. The main purpose of this paper is to empirically study glass ceiling effects, and investigate whether female workers are indeed being discriminated against, particularly during the promotion process, in top management positions in Taiwan. This paper uses data from 4,485 large firms in Taiwan to study whether there are gender preferences when the chairperson of a company chooses a chief executive officer (CEO). The data show that there are few female top executives (about 6%). In addition, a chairperson tends to team with same sex CEOs. This is especially noticeable among female chairpersons. The empirical results from our random matching model further confirm that gender is neither irrelevant nor neutral when a chairperson names a CEO.