nep-gen New Economics Papers
on Gender
Issue of 2023‒02‒06
four papers chosen by
Jan Sauermann
Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering

  1. Do Role Models Matter in Large Classes? New Evidence on Gender Match Effects in Higher Education By Maurer, Stephan; Schwerdt, Guido; Wiederhold, Simon
  2. Gender Diversity in Ownership and Firm Innovativeness in Emerging Markets. The Mediating Roles of R&D Investments and External Capital By Vartuhi Tonoyan; Christopher Boudreaux
  3. The labor market returns to unobserved skills: Evidence from a gender quota By Moeeni, Safoura; Wei, Feng
  4. Gender quotas, board diversity and spillover effects. Evidence from Italian banks By Silvia Del Prete; Giulio Papini; Marco Tonello

  1. By: Maurer, Stephan (University of Konstanz); Schwerdt, Guido (University of Konstanz); Wiederhold, Simon (Ifo Institute for Economic Research)
    Abstract: We study whether female students benefit from being taught by female professors, and whether such gender match effects differ by class size. We use administrative records of a German public university, covering all programs and courses between 2006 and 2018. We find that gender match effects on student performance are sizable in smaller classes, but do not exist in larger classes. This difference suggests that direct and frequent interactions between students and professors are important for the emergence of gender match effects. Instead, the mere fact that one's professor is female is not sufficient to increase performance of female students.
    Keywords: gender gap, role models, tertiary education, professors
    JEL: I21 I23 I24 J16
    Date: 2023–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp15860&r=gen
  2. By: Vartuhi Tonoyan; Christopher Boudreaux
    Abstract: Despite recent evidence linking gender diversity in the firm with firm innovativeness, we know little about the underlying mechanisms. Building on and extending the Upper Echelon and entrepreneurship literature, we address two lingering questions: why and how does gender diversity in firm ownership affect firm innovativeness? We use survey data collected from 7, 848 owner-managers of SMEs across 29 emerging markets to test our hypotheses. Our findings demonstrate that firms with higher gender diversity in ownership are more likely to invest in R&D and rely upon a breadth of external capital, with such differentials explaining sizeable proportions of the higher likelihood of overall firm innovativeness, product and process, as well as organizational and marketing innovations exhibited by their firms. Our findings are robust to corrections for alternative measurement of focal variables, sensitivity to outliers and subsamples, and endogenous self-selection concerns.
    Date: 2023–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arx:papers:2301.01127&r=gen
  3. By: Moeeni, Safoura; Wei, Feng
    Abstract: We estimate the effects of unobserved skills on labor market outcomes by investigating a change in the distribution of unobserved skills. Among people with the same levels of observed skills such as education and work experience, there are still disparities in labor market outcomes. since employers cannot observe all applicantsâ skills and productivity, they rely on the average skills of different groups. We exploit a discontinuity generated by the 2012 education policy in Iran. This policy restricting female students in specific college majors changes the size and skill distribution of high school graduates. We find three main findings. First, the education quota lowers women's college attendance. Second, young high-school graduate women are more likely to participate in the labor market and have a job. Third, the gender wage gap decreases among high-school workers due to both within and between occupation changes: treated women are paid more and they take up higher-paying middle-skilled positions that used to be non-traditional occupations for them.
    Keywords: Unobserved Skills, Occupational Choice, Education Quota, Gender Discrimination, Wage differentials
    Date: 2022
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:clefwp:53&r=gen
  4. By: Silvia Del Prete (Bank of Italy); Giulio Papini (Bank of Italy); Marco Tonello (Bank of Italy)
    Abstract: We study the impact of a 2011 law on the diversity of bank boards. The law required all listed companies in Italy (including banks) to increase the share of female representatives on their boards up to one third of total seats. We look at listed banks (the ones directly targeted by the law), but also test whether the law led to spillover effects on non-listed banks belonging to listed groups. Using administrative data on board composition between 2007 and 2019, we compare some measures of diversity of boards of listed and unlisted banks belonging to listed groups with those of institutions included in non-listed groups, before and after the introduction of the law. We find that female representation increased only for listed banks, with no spillover effects of the law on those belonging to listed groups, while the economic performance of listed banks remained broadly unchanged.
    Keywords: bank board composition, diversity, gender, corporate governance
    JEL: G21 G38 J48 J78
    Date: 2022–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bdi:wptemi:td_1395_22&r=gen

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