This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. Forthcoming Articles
  5. Why is Workplace Sexual Harassment Underreported? The Value of Outside Options Amid the Threat of Retaliation

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Why is Workplace Sexual Harassment Underreported? The Value of Outside Options Amid the Threat of Retaliation

  • Gordon B. Dahl
  • Matthew Knepper
American Economic Review (Forthcoming)

Abstract

Why is workplace sexual harassment chronically underreported? We hypothesize that employers coerce victims into silence through the threat of a retaliatory firing. To test this, we estimate how two external shocks which reduce workers’ outside options—unemployment rate increases and sharp cuts to unemployment insurance benefits—affect the selectivity of sexual harassment charges filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. We find that both shocks increase selectivity, which implies an increase in underreporting. Bolstering these findings, anonymous Google searches for “sexual harassment in the workplace” (total prevalence) spike relative to charges filed (reported prevalence) during the Great Recession.

Downloads