Affiliation bias in peer review and the gender gap

We document an affiliation bias in top Chinese journals and the gender gap in the current affiliation effect. We find that papers written by researchers who are affiliated with the journals' host institutions on average receive fewer citation counts than those written by non-affiliated researchers. Moreover, we show that this affiliation bias is greater for men than for women. We propose that the current effect can be accounted for by a social capital mechanism, and we provide evidence consistent with our proposition. In addition, the results of our analyses demonstrate heterogeneity of the affiliation bias and the gender gap with regard to researcher status. We discuss alternative mechanisms of the current effect and implications of our research.