京都大学 大学院経済学研究科・経済学部

タイトル:

“Testing for Discrimination in Large Law Firms: an Outcome Test Approach”

Abstract:
We investigate whether discrimination could account for the well-documented under-representation of minority groups among equity partners in large law firms. Using the After the JD data set -a unique longitudinal survey of more than 4,000 lawyers- we test for disparities in promotion rates along the dimensions of gender as well as age, parenthood, and law school rank using an observational variant of the outcome test. We find that marginal female partners are slightly less productive than their male peers in terms of billable hours, and that lawyers who graduate from top law schools are slightly less productive than their non-top law school peers in terms of new matters brought to the firm. Other comparisons do not reveal significant differences. We document that promotion does not affect perceptions of discrimination. Further, relative to lawyers working in other environments, there appears more of a perception of discrimination in private law firms: it is coming from those associates who have not been promoted, and also from men.