Gender differences in returns to academic collaboration

While the percentage of women in academia is rising globally to approximately 50 percent, there is still a significant gender disparity in obtaining the most prestigious positions in the research community. In 2018, women made up just 26.2 percent of full professors and 19.7 percent of university presidents in Europe, one of the regions that have made the most progress toward gender parity (European Commission, 2021). Compared to the past, there is a slight improvement, but the pace of increasing the share of women in top positions in academia remains slow. So, there is still a need to identify reasons and solutions for gender disparities in academia (Minello, 2020).

A large dataset of archived records of publications in Economics from 1970 to 2017, with 1,990 journals, and nearly a million articles, provides empirical evidence for the finding that both gender differences in academic networks and mobility contribute to gender differences in research output. More specifically, the research reveals that alterations in academic networks have a notable impact on authors’ productivity, resulting in an average 12.6% decrease in research output after losing a co-author. Both young scholars and higher-ability authors exhibit more significant declines in research output. Furthermore, the centrality of a researcher within their network helps alleviate the adverse effects of losing a co-author, indicating diminishing returns to co-authors. Intriguingly, women tend to experience less pronounced decreases in research output from co-author loss compared to men, even when their network positions are similar, highlighting potential gender differences in network utilization.

In terms of research mobility, being a woman reduces the likelihood of various types of research mobilities which forecast increased output over the next five years. Because they are less likely to change institutions, women have a disadvantage in enhancing research output. Additionally, of the four mobility categories — international moving, upward moving, downward moving, and general moving— international moving has the largest impact on productivity. The most effective kind of mobility for authors is relocation abroad. Since women are less likely to relocate, especially moving abroad, then their research outputs benefit less from such mobility.