Does Mentoring Increase the Collaboration Networks of Female Economists? An Evaluation of the CeMENT Randomized Trial

Previous research has shown that women in the treatment group of the CeMENT randomized controlled trial increased their publications and the likelihood that they were tenured in top 50 economics departments. This paper examines one potential mechanism, namely, that CeMENT expanded the collaboration networks of the participants. Our analysis finds that women who received the mentoring treatment had three additional pre-tenure coauthors, 1.6 more pre-tenure publications and 43 additional citations to those publications. After controlling for additional coauthors, the CeMENT program increased publications, and top-tier publications. These results suggest that the information conveyed at the workshop facilitated participants’ career success.