Sexual Harassment Policy and Incentives to Social Interaction
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Laws discourage both illegal activity and legitimate activity that could be mistaken as illegal, particularly if the penalty is sufficiently high. This paper demonstrates that policies designed to fight sexual harassment can lead to a decrease in appropriate social interaction due to the potential for mistake and the significance of its penalties. The model describes the expected payoffs of communication and how such policy affects them, demonstrating that if the possibility of mistake exists, anti-harassment policy will deter innocent communication. The paper further describes the effects of anti-harassment policy in a hierarchical, two-gender workplace in which social relationships with superiors and colleagues influence whether a worker receives a promotion. The model shows that in this situation, anti-harassment policy primarily harms female employees, and harms them more if they are the minority gender in the workplace. The model holds implications not only for anti-harassment policy but for any area featuring by reporting and the potential for mistake.
Description
Type of resource | text |
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Date created | May 2008 |
Creators/Contributors
Author | Walls, Elizabeth | |
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Primary advisor | Bresnahan, Timothy | |
Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Economics |
Subjects
Subject | Stanford Department of Economics |
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Subject | Sexual harassment |
Subject | regulation |
Subject | law |
Subject | workplace |
Subject | communication |
Subject | interaction |
Subject | gender |
Subject | discrimination |
Subject | glass ceiling |
Subject | Title VII |
Subject | social capital. |
Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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- Use and reproduction
- User agrees that, where applicable, content will not be used to identify or to otherwise infringe the privacy or confidentiality rights of individuals. Content distributed via the Stanford Digital Repository may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor.
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Walls, Elizabeth. (2008). Sexual Harassment Policy and Incentives to Social Interaction. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/rz921sq4112
Collection
Stanford University, Department of Economics, Honors Theses
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