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on Gender |
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Issue of 2023‒12‒18
two papers chosen by Jan Sauermann, Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Contini, Dalit (University of Torino); Di Tommaso, Maria Laura (University of Torino); Maccagnan, Anna (University of Torino); Mendolia, Silvia (Frisch Center for Economic Research) |
| Abstract: | This paper focuses on the gendered choice of high school in the Italian context, where children are tracked at age 14 and are free to choose the type of school, with no binding teacher recommendation or ability restriction. It is therefore a context in which preferences, however influenced by different factors, are freely expressed, without any institutional constraints imposed on the decision-making process. Previous literature has mainly analysed gendered educational choices by focusing on the field at later stages in life. The transition from lower secondary to upper secondary school is particularly relevant for children who do not go on to university and can help to understand gender segregation in low and middle-level occupations. We analyse the role of school performance in mathematics and Italian (teacher grades and standardized test scores), the position in the class ranking, the comparative advantage in one subject and find that, while school performance hardly explains the gender gap for the children with low educated parents, it explains part of the gender gap observed for children from more advantaged backgrounds. |
| Keywords: | gender gap, high school choices, school performance, STEM fields |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J16 |
| Date: | 2023–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16584&r=gen |
| By: | Luise Goerges (Leuphana University Lüneburg); Tom Lane (Newcastle University Business School); Daniele Nosenzo (Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University); Silvia Sonderegger (School of Economics and Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, University of Nottingham) |
| Abstract: | Building on findings showing that laws exert a causal effect on social norms, this paper investigates whether this “expressive power of law†differs by gender or race. We develop a model to show that such differences are theoretically plausible. We then use an incentivized vignette experiment to test whether these differences are empirically relevant. Results from an online sample of around 4000 subjects confirm that laws causally influence social norms. However, we find little evidence of a differential effect across gender or race, suggesting that gender and race biases in the legal system are driven by other mechanisms than differences in the expressive power of law. |
| Keywords: | Social Norms, Law, Expressive Function of Law, Gender Gap, Racial Bias |
| JEL: | C91 C92 D9 K1 K42 |
| Date: | 2023–11–29 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aah:aarhec:2023-12&r=gen |