Back to History Current Version

Meet my family: the effect of female CEOs’ newspaper coverage on CEO perception and economic decision making

Last registered on August 06, 2024

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Meet my family: the effect of female CEOs’ newspaper coverage on CEO perception and economic decision making
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0013611
Initial registration date
July 29, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
August 06, 2024, 10:56 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
DIW Berlin

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
DIW Berlin

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-07-30
End date
2025-07-28
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The newspaper coverage of company board members is highly gendered. In particular, more family-related language is used in newspaper articles on female CEOs compared to male CEOs of publicly listed companies in Germany. This is in line with gender stereotypes and traditional gender roles associating women with family and a caregiver role, and men with careers and a main breadwinner role. In a randomized online experiment, we ask whether the stereotypical representation of CEOs in newspapers affects individuals' beliefs about manager and firm performance, and resulting financial decision-making. We show participants articles consisting of elements from real newspaper coverage on a real company and its CEO. We vary whether information about the CEO's family or a tradeoff between family and career is mentioned in the articles, hereby varying the way male and female CEOs are portrayed related to gender stereotypes. Subsequently, participants are asked several questions on (incentivized) outcomes related to beliefs about firm performance, investment into stocks of the firm, beliefs about CEO performance in an employee ranking, and the CEO's `survival' in the firm. In unincentivized questions, they are further asked to explain the reasoning behind their answers.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Kinne, Lavinia and Virginia Sondergeld. 2024. "Meet my family: the effect of female CEOs’ newspaper coverage on CEO perception and economic decision making." AEA RCT Registry. August 06. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.13611-1.0
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
In a randomized online experiment, we ask whether the stereotypical representation of CEOs in newspapers affects individuals' beliefs about manager and firm performance, and resulting financial decision-making. We show participants articles consisting of elements from real newspaper coverage on a real company and its CEO. We vary whether information about the CEO's family or a tradeoff between family and career is mentioned in the articles, hereby varying the way male and female CEOs are portrayed related to gender stereotypes.

There will be five treatment arms: one version of the article about a male and one about a female CEO without mentioning the family, one version of the article about a male and one about a female CEO where the family is briefly mentioned, and one about a female CEO where a tradeoff between family and career is mentioned.

Subsequently, participants are asked several questions on (incentivized) outcomes related to beliefs about firm performance, investment into stocks of the firm, beliefs about CEO performance in an employee ranking, and the CEO's `survival' in the firm. In unincentivized questions, they will further be asked to explain the reasoning behind their answers.
Intervention Start Date
2024-09-01
Intervention End Date
2025-01-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Incentivized outcome 1: Beliefs about stock performance in the year after CEO appointment
Incentivized outcome 2: Investment in the firm at the date of CEO appointment (for one year)
Incentivized outcome 3: Beliefs about CEO approval by employees on Glassdoor
Incentivized outcome 4: Beliefs about CEO 'survival'
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Incentivized outcome 1: Beliefs about stock performance in the year after CEO appointment
The participants are asked whether the stock of the company performed better or worse in the year after the appointment of the CEO than in the year prior to their appointment. The correct answers are `worse' for Martina Bauer and `better' for Martin Bauer.

Incentivized outcome 2: Investment in the firm at the date of CEO appointment
This question asks participants to split a total of EUR 100 into an investment in the company and an alternative investment. In the pilot experiment, we are testing two versions of this question with differing alternative investments: first, a secure savings account that will guarantee a 2% return for the year, and second, an investment in a financial product that tracks the price performance of the German stock index (DAX). The participants are informed that after the end of the study, five participants will be randomly selected, who will receive a payout equal to the value of their investment one year after the appointment of the respective CEO.


Incentivized outcome 3: Beliefs about CEO approval by employees on Glassdoor
Participants are asked about their beliefs regarding the approval of the CEO by their employees on the employer rating platform Glassdoor approx. 1.5 years after the CEO appointment. The participants can choose a value on a scale from 0% (i.e. no employee that rated the CEO on Glassdoor approved them) to 100% (i.e. all employees that rated the CEO on Glassdoor approved them). As an anchor, the participants receive the information that in Glassdoor's latest report (from 2021) the average global CEO approval rate was 73%. The participants will receive EUR 1 if their answer lies within a 5 percentage point range around the true CEO approval (93% for female CEO and 89% for male CEO).


Incentivized outcome 4: Beliefs about CEO 'survival'
In this question, the participants are asked whether they think the CEO is still in place two years after their appointment. The correct answer in both cases is yes and the participants will receive EUR 0.50 for answering this question correctly.

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
open-text questions, unincentivized: reasoning behind answers to questions about employee ranking and 'survival'
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
articles on female or male CEOs with varying way of mentioning the family; five treatment arms

1M: male CEO, do not mention family
1F: female CEO, mention family
2M: male CEO, mention family briefly
2F: female CEO, mention family briefly
3F: female CEO, mention family-career tradeoff
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
The randomization is done in Qualtrics using the randomizer function.
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
3000
Sample size: planned number of observations
3000
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
600 individuals for each of the five treatment arms
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Gesellschaft für experimentelle Wirtschaftsforschung e.V. (GfeW)
IRB Approval Date
2024-07-09
IRB Approval Number
gawVyUPi
Analysis Plan

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information