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on Gender |
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Issue of 2026–05–18
nine papers chosen by Jan Sauermann, Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Ali Abboud; Samuel Bazzi; Serena Canaan; Antoine Deeb; Pierre Mouganie |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how authority figures in higher education shape gender norms over the long run. We exploit the random assignment of first-year students to faculty advisors at an elite university in the Middle East and combine administrative records with an alumni survey measuring gender attitudes up to 24 years later. Women assigned to female advisors adopt more egalitarian views about politics and work, while men become more conservative. These effects are strongest among religious students and in male-dominated STEM fields, where female authority is especially counter-stereotypical. The effects may persist through reinforcement, as women assigned to female advisors later sort toward female instructors and more gender-themed courses. Our results do not appear to be driven by generic exposure to successful women. Instead, they point to a distinct role for authority in transmitting gender norms: randomized exposure to high-achieving female peers has little effect, while the largest impacts come from senior and high-value-added female advisors. A simple framework combining belief updating and identity-based status threat helps explain these patterns of female empowerment and male backlash. More broadly, our findings reveal a progress paradox whereby gains in female representation in elite authority expand opportunities for women while intensifying backlash among men, thereby deepening gender polarization. |
| JEL: | I24 J16 J24 P00 Z12 Z13 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35174 |
| By: | Joacim Tåg; Fredrik Heyman; Malin Gardberg; Martin Olsson |
| Abstract: | We examine how gender-based occupational sorting before the release of ChatGPT relates to predicted exposure to generative AI and its potential implications for the gender wage gap. Using Swedish administrative data, we find that women are overrepresented in occupations predicted to be more affected by generative AI. Mechanical partial-equilibrium simulations, based on hypothesized deviations from the 2021 occupational and wage distribution and incorporating predicted AI exposure and task complementarity, show that generative AI can widen the gender wage gap through existing patterns of gender-based occupational sorting. |
| Keywords: | Generative AI, gender wage gap, technological change, occupational sorting, complementarity |
| JEL: | J16 J31 O33 J24 |
| Date: | 2026–04 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26118 |
| By: | Trine Bille (Copenhagen Business School); Hendrik Sonnabend (University of Hagen) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses gender differences in leadership in the German movie industry using a uniquely long-run dataset covering nearly 88, 000 films and more than 27, 000 directors from the late nineteenth century to 2023. Treating film directors as key leadership positions in a project-based creative labour market, we distinguish between career persistence and access to economically sustainable projects. Methodologically, we combine non-parametric survival functions and semi-parametric Cox proportional hazard models with film-level linear probability models including year fixed effects and detailed controls for experience, education, and production characteristics. This framework allows us to distinguish gender differences in exit behaviour from those in project allocation. We document a substantial historical underrepresentation of women, although participation has increased markedly since the 1960s. Survival estimates show no evidence that female directors exit the profession more rapidly than men once cohort and age-at-entry effects are accounted for. However, women are significantly less likely to direct commercial films—projects most closely associated with income generation. These gaps are large in unconditional models but largely explained by differences in accumulated experience. Conditional on commercial experience, women are no less likely than men to continue directing such projects. We further provide evidence suggesting that formal film education and public funding contribute to narrowing gender gaps, highlighting the role of institutions in shaping leadership opportunities. |
| Keywords: | leadership, Gender, Film Directors, Careers, Public Funding, Film Schools |
| JEL: | J16 L82 Z10 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cue:wpaper:awp-05-2026 |
| By: | Rigissa Megalokonomou |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how gender representation affects collective decision-making in expert committees. I exploit quasi-random assignment of judges to panels in the Greek Supreme Court using newly digitized data on 3, 700 criminal appeals. I find that panels with more female judges are more likely to reject appeals and less likely to delegate cases. Effects are nonlinear and emerge primarily once at least three of five judges are female; below this level, representation has no detectable effect. The mechanism appears to operate at the panel rather than the individual level — panels with a higher share of female judges take significantly longer to decide, especially in complex cases and in familiar panel compositions, consistent with more thorough deliberation rather than coordination costs. These findings suggest that diversity policies targeting modest increases in female representation will have limited impact unless they shift the deliberative composition of the group itself. |
| Keywords: | panel decisions, gender composition, quasi-random assignment, Supreme Court |
| JEL: | J16 D03 D71 J78 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12661 |
| By: | Shameena Khatoon (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research; Institute of Economic Growth) |
| Abstract: | This study examines how maternity leave policies affect female labor force participation (FLP) across 160 countries from 2000 to 2023. We analyze the crucial but overlooked dimension of payment structure whether governments or employers bear the costs. Using fixedeffects panel regression models, we find that leave duration alone shows no significant effect on FLP in full sample. However, government-funded maternity leave is associated with 1.49 percentage points higher participation rates. Crucially, we uncover heterogeneous effects by income level: in upper-middle-income countries, longer leave durations reduce FLP when costs fall on employers but this negative effect vanishes when leave is publicly funded. In low-income countries, extended leave modestly boosts participation, while high-income countries show diminishing returns to paid leave. Our findings challenge the assumption that longer leave universally benefits FLP, demonstrating instead that policy design especially public financing is pivotal for mitigating unintended labor market disincentives. These insights are critical for policymakers seeking to balance gender equity with economic efficiency in maternity leave reforms. |
| Keywords: | Maternity leave, female labor force participation, fully government funded leave, paid leave, policy design, income heterogeneity, fixed-effects regression |
| JEL: | J13 J16 J21 J22 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2026-008 |
| By: | Clara Chambers; Benjamin Goldman; Joseph Winkelmann |
| Abstract: | Over the past half-century, U.S. four-year colleges have shifted from enrolling mostly men to enrolling mostly women, while the economic position of non-college men has weakened markedly. We examine how these changes correspond with the evolving structure of marriage markets across cohorts and places. As college men have become increasingly scarce, college women have maintained stable marriage rates by marrying high-earning non-college men. This shift—combined with the broader economic decline of non-college men—has sharply reduced the pool of economically stable partners available to non-college women: the share of non-college men who earn above the national median and are not married to college women has fallen by more than 50%. Cross-area evidence shows that education gaps in marriage are smaller where non-college men face lower rates of joblessness and incarceration. Taken together, the evidence suggests that deteriorating outcomes for men have primarily undermined the marriage prospects of non-college women. |
| JEL: | D31 I24 J1 J11 J12 J16 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35179 |
| By: | Daphné Skandalis; Arnaud Philippe |
| Abstract: | Why do women's labor earnings drop upon motherhood? We shed new light on this question by analyzing the changes in job search behavior associated with motherhood. We exploit data on the job applications sent on a popular online platform linked with administrative registers for 350, 000 involuntarily unemployed workers in France. After losing their job, mothers have a 11.7% lower probability to find a job than similar women without children and send 12.2% fewer job applications. To explore the underlying mechanisms, we analyze the timing of job applications. Unlike other women, mothers' rate of applications decreases by about 20.5% in the hours when there is no school. Moreover, the French reform that introduced school on Wednesday in 2014 led mothers to send more applications on Wednesdays. Our results highlight that childcare creates constraints on the timing of job search activities for mothers. We finally provide suggestive evidence that these constraints decrease their return-to-search, and thereby contribute to their lower application and job finding rates. |
| Keywords: | Gender inequality, Motherhood, Time allocation, Job search |
| JEL: | J16 J22 J64 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:crm:wpaper:26129 |
| By: | Kato-Vidal, Enrique |
| Abstract: | This study examines the impact of the doubling of the real minimum wage in Mexico (2015–2025) on the gender wage gap. While labor market discrimination remains pervasive, the causal drivers of gap reduction are under-researched. Utilizing data from INEGI’s Employment Survey (ENOE) and OLS regression analysis, this research segments the labor market by wage level, contract type, and job position to identify heterogeneous effects. The findings provide strong evidence for the lighthouse effect, demonstrating that minimum wage hikes serve as a bottom-up equalizer. The gender gap in the low-wage bracket plummeted from 9% to 0%, with significant reductions also observed among temporary and non-contractual workers. This suggests the minimum wage functions as a powerful social benchmark beyond the regulated sector. However, the policy proved less effective in middle- and high-income clerical and managerial roles. The study concludes that while aggressive minimum wage policies effectively mitigate the sticky floor, targeted sector-specific interventions remain necessary to achieve full gender pay equity. |
| Date: | 2026–04–23 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:kmtfc_v1 |
| By: | Mahmood, Rafat (Monash University); Maitra, Pushkar (Monash University) |
| Abstract: | Natural disasters are a growing global threat, yet their consequences for gender-based violence (GBV) in high-income countries with strong institutional protections remain largely unknown. We address this gap using administrative crime records linked to disaster declarations at the Local Government Area level in Australia. Applying staggered difference-in-differences estimation techniques, we find that disasters cause short-run increase family, domestic, and sexual violence with effects concentrated in the first one to three months following a disaster. Strikingly, these effects are larger in urban and affluent areas, an outcome that is difficult to reconcile with a pure economic-stress mechanism, and is more consistent with institutional strain and differential reporting environments. To probe the underlying pathway, we draw on complementary household survey evidence, which points to mental health deterioration and increased intra-household conflict as individual-level mechanisms. Together, our findings suggest that even well-resourced institutional settings offer only incomplete protection against disaster-induced violence against women. |
| Keywords: | natural disasters, gender based violence, event study, Australia |
| JEL: | Q54 J12 J16 I18 K42 |
| Date: | 2026–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18616 |