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Apesteguia J, Azmat G and Iriberri N (2012) The impact of gender composition on team performance and decision-making: Evidence from the field. Management Science, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra 58(1): 78–93.

We investigate whether the gender composition of teams affects their economic performance. We study a large business game, played in groups of three, in which each group takes the role of a general manager. There are two parallel competitions, one involving undergraduates and the other involving MBA students. Our analysis shows that teams formed by three women are significantly outperformed by all other gender combinations, both at the undergraduate and MBA levels. Looking across the performance distribution, we find that for undergraduates, three-women teams are outperformed throughout, but by as much as 0.47 of a standard deviation of the mean at the bottom and by only 0.09 at the top. For MBA students, at the top, the best performing group is two men and one woman. The differences in performance are explained by differences in decision making. We observe that three-women teams are less aggressive in their pricing strategies, invest less in research and development, and invest more in social sustainability initiatives than does any other gender combination.

The gender gap in science and technology has received considerable attention by both researchers and policy makers. In an effort to better understand the quantity, quality, and underlying characteristics of female research efforts, I integrate three existing databases to uncover how female patenting activities differ from men’s in the US biotechnology industry. Data on how much science the patents build upon, the author institutions of that science, and who funded the papers in which the science appears are all examined. In addition, using the NBER Patent Citation Data Files, I propose a possible gender-based life cycle model for patenting activity. The policy implications of my findings are also discussed.

This report presents the results from a cross-Nordic mapping of existing research and literature on gender, education and population flows in the peripheral areas of Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and the autonomous territories of Greenland, the Faroe Islands and Åland. The Nordic Council of Ministers and the Danish Ministry of Children, Gender Equality, Integration and Social Affairs commission the mapping. The purpose of the mapping has been to highlight development trends and identify best practice cases across the Nordic region’s peripheral areas, and thus contribute to the exchange of knowledge and create a basis for joint talks and discussion. A pivotal aim of this mapping has been to shed light on the challenges facing the peripheral areas, while at the same time focusing on the intersection between gender and place/space. As stated in the mapping, the places where men and women live, and the spheres they move around in (e.g. in the family, in the educational institutions, at the workplaces, etc.) are all rooted in specific geographical locations, that contribute to define both which opportunity structures exist, and the degrees of freedom each individual face. Thus, the mapping is based on an understanding that gender must be taken into consideration, if one aims to fully understand trends in the peripheral areas of the Nordic countries.