nep-gen New Economics Papers
on Gender
Issue of 2019‒04‒15
six papers chosen by
Jan Sauermann
Stockholms universitet

  1. Gender Equality and Positive Action: Evidence from UK Universities By Gamage, Danula K.; Sevilla, Almudena
  2. “Who pollutes more? Gender differences in consumptions patterns” By Montserrat Guillén; Mònica Serrano; Francisca Toro
  3. Does More Math in High School Increase the Share of Female STEM Workers? Evidence from a Curriculum Reform By Biewen, Martin; Schwerter, Jakob
  4. Ethnic and Gender Discrimination in Rental Housing Market, Evidence from Meta-Analysis of Correspondence Tests, 2006-2017 By Alexandre Flage
  5. “What is Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander? How gender-specific conceptual frames affect financial participation and decision-making” By Cecilia Boggio; Flavia Coda Moscarola; Andrea Gallice
  6. Undoing Gender with Institutions: Lessons from the German Division and Reunification By Lippmann, Quentin; Georgieff, Alexandre; Senik, Claudia

  1. By: Gamage, Danula K. (Queen Mary, University of London); Sevilla, Almudena (University College London)
    Abstract: This paper examines the impact of the Athena Scientific Women's Academic Network (SWAN) Charter on the wages and employment trajectories of female faculty. The Athena SWAN Charter is a gender equality initiative that formally recognises good practice towards the representation and career progression of women in Science, Technology, Engineer, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM) through an accreditation process. We find that the gender wage gap closes after Athena SWAN accreditation. However, female faculty at the non-professorial level are not more likely to being promoted to professor after accreditation, or to move to an Athena SWAN accredited university. Taken together these results suggest that the higher wage growth experienced by female non-professorial faculty after Athena SWAN accreditation is likely to come from pay rises within a particular rank.
    Keywords: gender equality, positive action, gender pay gap, Athena SWAN
    JEL: I23 J16 J31 J44
    Date: 2019–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12211&r=all
  2. By: Montserrat Guillén (Department of Econometrics and Riskcenter-IREA, University of Barcelona.); Mònica Serrano (Department of Economics and BEAT, University of Barcelona.); Francisca Toro (Department of Applied Economics, University of Oviedo, Spain.)
    Abstract: Recent behavioral literature shows that we can identify differences between women and men in diverse domains in a general context, such as empathy, social preferences and reaction towards competitiveness, risk aversion, etc. Regarding the environment, recent studies propose that women have more knowledge and concern about the climate change than men. In this context, however, there is little evidence to what extend these behavioral differences between women and men have been translated into consumption actions more environmental friendly. Within this approach, this paper evaluates different environmental footprints of consumption patterns of women and men. As a case study, we examine Spain during the period 2008-2013. Using data from Spanish input-output tables, environmental air accounts, and household expenditure surveys for the same period, the study give evidence that gender differences take a relevant and significant position according to Weighted Least Square regression.
    Keywords: Environmental impact, Greenhouse gases, Private Consumption, Gender, Multisectoral models, Econometric analysis, Spain. JEL classification: C81, D57, Q5.
    Date: 2019–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ira:wpaper:201906&r=all
  3. By: Biewen, Martin (University of Tuebingen); Schwerter, Jakob (University of Tübingen)
    Abstract: This paper studies the consequences of a curriculum reform of the last two years of high school in one of the German federal states on the share of male and female students who complete degrees in STEM subjects and who later work in STEM occupations. The reform had two important aspects: (i) it equalized all students' exposure to math by making advanced math compulsory in the last two years of high school; and (ii) it roughly doubled the instruction time and increased the level of instruction in math and the natural sciences for some 80 percent of students, more so for females than for males. Our results provide some evidence that the reform had positive effects on the share of men completing STEM degrees and later working in STEM occupations but no such effects for women. The positive effects for men appear to be driven by a positive effect for engineering and computer science, which was partly counteracted by a negative effect for math and physics.
    Keywords: academic degrees, occupational choice, gender differences
    JEL: I23 J16 J24
    Date: 2019–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12236&r=all
  4. By: Alexandre Flage (Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, CRESE)
    Abstract: We present a large review of all studies that tested discrimination against minority ethnic groups in the rental housing market with the correspondence tests method. Moreover, we perform a meta-analysis of correspondence tests from 25 separate studies conducted in OECD countries between 2006 and 2017, containing more than 300 estimates of effects and representing a total of over 110 000 emails sent to private landlords or real estate agents. In addition to presenting overall results of recent studies, we focus on subgroups of specific correspondence tests in order to highlight the differences across ethnicity, gender, type of landlords, procedure, continent, and type of information provided in applications. We provide evidence that both gender and ethnic discrimination occur in the rental housing market in OECD countries, such that minority-sounding names and male names applicants are discriminated (especially for Arab/Muslim applicants). We show the existence of interactions between ethnic and gender discrimination: gender discrimination is larger for Minority-sounding names than for Majority-sounding names. Thus, ethnic Majority women are the most favored on this market in OECD countries while Minority men are the most disadvantaged. Moreover, we highlight that this discrimination mainly comes from agents’ preferences rather than statistical discrimination. Finally, it seems that real estate agents discriminate significantly less minority applicants than private landlords do. These results are robust to the estimation method used (random effects, fixed-effects and unrestricted weighted least squares methods).
    Keywords: ethnic and gender discrimination, rental housing, correspondence test, meta-analysis, review
    JEL: J15 J16 C93 R21
    Date: 2018–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crb:wpaper:2018-04&r=all
  5. By: Cecilia Boggio (University of Turin); Flavia Coda Moscarola (University of Turin); Andrea Gallice (Collegio Carlo Alberto)
    Abstract: The gender gap in financial participation and decision-making has been extensively documented in the economic and sociological literature. We conduct a field experiment with elementary school children to go to the roots of this gender gap. We compare the effects of two different treatments (the language treatment and the MdR treatment) designed to boost the attention span of the participants on a basic financial task aiming at eliciting their time preferences. We find that the use of gender-specific conceptual frames (competitiveness vs. cooperation) in the description of the task: 1) improves girls’ understanding of it and is effective in increasing the number of coherent answers; 2) makes the MdR workshop on the utility of savings more effective in improving the consistency of the answers of girls; 3) increases the children’s level of patience. This evidence supports the idea that a more gender-specific conceptual frame --one women can identify more with-- could play a role in narrowing the gender gap in financial market participation and decision-making.
    Date: 2019–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crp:wpaper:168&r=all
  6. By: Lippmann, Quentin (Paris School of Economics); Georgieff, Alexandre (Paris School of Economics); Senik, Claudia (Paris School of Economics)
    Abstract: Using the 41-year division of Germany as a natural experiment, we show that the GDR's gender-equal institutions created a culture that has undone the male breadwinner norm and its consequences. Since reunification, East Germany still differs from West Germany not only by a higher female contribution to household income, but also because East German women can earn more than their husbands without having to increase their number of housework hours, put their marriage at risk or withdraw from the labor market. By contrast, the norm of higher male income, and its consequences, are still prevalent in West Germany.
    Keywords: gender norms, culture, institutions, German division, family, housework, divorce, labor market
    JEL: D13 I31 J16 P51 Z1
    Date: 2019–03
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp12212&r=all

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