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on Gender |
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Issue of 2025–02–10
seven papers chosen by Jan Sauermann, Institutet för Arbetsmarknads- och Utbildningspolitisk Utvärdering |
| By: | Larissa Fuchs; Pia Pinger; Philipp Seegers |
| Abstract: | Based on novel administrative and survey data from Germany, this study investigates the importance of relative STEM performance in high school for the gender gap in STEM enrollment. We first document that males display a higher relative STEM performance than females, which however mainly emerges from females' stronger achievement in non-STEM subjects. Our findings further reveal that a one-standard-deviation increase in grade-based STEM advantage raises the likelihood of pursuing a STEM degree by approximately 19 percentage points for males, but only by half as much for females. A decomposition analysis shows that 26% of the STEM gender gap could be attributed to differences in grade-based STEM performance if major preferences resembled those of males. However, relative grades are largely unimportant in an environment where preferences mirror those of females. This suggests that STEM performance differences have limited influence on females' decisions to pursue STEM degrees. While STEM advantage significantly impacts observed gender gaps in STEM enrollment, this effect is primarily driven by males. |
| Keywords: | gender gap, STEM enrollment, relative grades, ranks |
| JEL: | I21 I24 J16 J24 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_633 |
| By: | Kyle Hancock; Jeanne Lafortune; Corinne Low |
| Abstract: | We document that female breadwinners do more home production than their male partners, driven by “housework” like cooking and cleaning. By comparing to same sex couples, we highlight that specialization within heterosexual households does not appear to be “gender neutral” even after accounting for average earnings differences. One possible explanation would be a large comparative advantage in housework by women, a supposition commonly used to match aggregate labor supply statistics. Using a model, we show that while comparative advantage can match some stylized facts about how couples divide housework, it fails to match others, particularly that men’s housework time is inelastic to relative household wages. Matching these facts requires some gendered wedge between the opportunity cost of housework time and its assignment within the household. We then turn to the implications for household formation. Gendered rigidities in the allocation of household tasks result in lower surplus for couples where women out-earn men than vice versa, providing a micro-founded reason for substantial literature showing that lower relative earning by men decreases marriage rates. We show that our mechanism—allocation of housework, rather than norms about earnings—plays a role by relating marriage rates to the ratio of home production time in US immigrants’ countries of origin. |
| JEL: | D13 J12 J22 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33393 |
| By: | Grover, Arti (World Bank); Viollaz, Mariana (CEDLAS-UNLP) |
| Abstract: | This paper provides evidence on the nature of financial constraints faced by women entrepreneurs, especially in contexts of stringent social norms. Using micro-data from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys for 61 countries, the analysis shows that formal firms managed by women do not face credit constraints on the extensive margin. They are equally likely to apply for credit as their male counterparts and experience lower rates of credit rejection, with a higher likelihood of opening credit lines. However, on the intensive margin, firms managed by women receive lower credit amounts, indicating signs of credit constraints. This disparity in access to credit cannot be explained by gender differences in risk profiles, profitability, or productivity. However, firms managed by women have lower sales per worker, suggesting challenges in accessing product and labor markets. The paper finds suggestive evidence of capital misallocation based on gender, particularly in countries with more restrictive gender and cultural norms. Firms managed by women demonstrate a 15 percent higher average return on capital compared to firms managed by men, indicating the potential benefits of increased access to credit for women-led businesses. These findings emphasize the importance of addressing gender-specific constraints to accessing finance and promoting gender-inclusive policies to enhance firm growth and reduce capital misallocation. |
| Keywords: | firms, credit, capital misallocation, gender, social and cultural norms |
| JEL: | D22 D24 J16 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17630 |
| By: | Hualin Xiao (LSCP - Laboratoire de sciences cognitives et psycholinguistique - DEC - Département d'Etudes Cognitives - ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, IJN - Institut Jean-Nicod - DEC - Département d'Etudes Cognitives - ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CdF (institution) - Collège de France - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Département de Philosophie - ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, UM6P - Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique = Mohammed VI Polytechnic University [Ben Guerir]); Antoine Marie (IJN - Institut Jean-Nicod - DEC - Département d'Etudes Cognitives - ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CdF (institution) - Collège de France - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Département de Philosophie - ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres, Aarhus University [Aarhus]); Brent Strickland (UM6P - Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique = Mohammed VI Polytechnic University [Ben Guerir], IJN - Institut Jean-Nicod - DEC - Département d'Etudes Cognitives - ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CdF (institution) - Collège de France - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Département de Philosophie - ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres) |
| Abstract: | Exploring what modulates people's trust in evidence of hiring discrimination is crucial to the deployment of corrective policies. Here, we explore one powerful source of variation in such judgments: moral commitment to gender equality (MCGE), that is, perceptions of the issue as a moral imperative and as identity‐defining. Across seven experiments (N = 3579), we examined folk evaluations of scientific reports of hiring discrimination in academia. Participants who were more morally committed to gender equality were more likely to trust rigorous, experimental evidence of gender discrimination against women. This association between moral commitment and research evaluations was not reducible to prior beliefs, and largely explained a sex difference in people's evaluations on the issue. On a darker note, however, MCGE was associated with increased chances of fallaciously inferring discrimination against women from contradictory evidence. Overall, our results suggest that moral convictions amplify people's myside bias, bringing about both benefits and costs in the public consumption of science. |
| Keywords: | Reference, Memory, Events, Completion, Mental files, Singular thought |
| Date: | 2024 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04876452 |
| By: | Ayllón, Sara (Universitat de Girona); Zamora, Camila (Autonomous University of Barcelona) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents the results of a field experiment aimed at reducing the gender bias in teaching evaluations at a higher education institution. In the intervention, before they completed the teaching evaluation questionnaire, students were individually randomized in three groups. One third received an email invitation to watch a video that informed them of the existence of implicit bias (treatment 1). Another third of the students received an email invitation to watch a video with an explicit message that made them aware of the presence of gender bias in teaching evaluations (treatment 2). This second video also mentioned the fact that the academic literature has shown that this form of discrimination often originates with male students. At the end of both videos, all the students treated were asked to avoid displaying prejudice when they completed the questionnaire. The final third of students was assigned to the control group and did not receive any message. The results indicate that the video on implicit bias served to reduce the score gap between male and female lecturers. However, the video on gender bias had an unintended consequence: male students in the treatment group awarded their female teachers even lower scores than did the control group — confirming the risk of backlash or reactance in this kind of debiasing campaign. Such an effect was found to be particularly strong in female-dominated academic contexts. |
| Keywords: | gender bias, field experiment, gender discrimination, teaching evaluations, higher education, Spain |
| JEL: | C93 I23 J71 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17632 |
| By: | Mavisakalyan, Astghik; Palmer, Michael; Salazar, Silvia |
| Abstract: | Self-promotion plays a significant role in both the labor market and society; however, its prevalence and effects remain difficult to quantify. This paper leverages the unique setting of professional surfing to examine the causal impact of self-promotion-proxied by the act of "claiming" a wave-on performance outcomes. Utilizing data from over 5, 500 waves in the World Surf League and employing an instrumental variables approach, we find that self-promotion provides substantial benefits, increasing wave scores by approximately 0.8 standard deviations, or 1.6 points out of a maximum score of 10. Notably, female surfers are significantly less likely than their male counterparts to engage in self-promotional behaviors, as reflected by a lower ferquency of claiming, yet they receive comparable benefits when they do claim. These findings offer valuable insights into the rewards of self-promotion in competitive, high-stakes environments and underscore the potential for women to improve outcomes by more frequently adopting such behaviors. |
| Keywords: | Self-promotion, Performance evaluation, Professional surfing, Gender differences, Instrumental variables |
| JEL: | J24 J16 Z22 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:glodps:1561 |
| By: | Elif Bodur |
| Abstract: | I investigate how media images, particularly advertisements, shape audiences’ aspirations. Utilizing the natural experiment in East Germany, I demonstrate that exposure to Western TV during the formative years of childhood and adolescence increases the income aspirations of males. Additionally, through an online experiment, I highlight that advertisements not only elevate income aspirations but also diminish the desire to have children among male adolescents. The latter particularly holds when the advertisements portray equal sharing of childcare responsibilities within couples. Notably, the effects of media exposure vary depending on their mothers’ labor market status. These findings underscore the pivotal role of media in perpetuating and reinforcing stereotypical gender roles. |
| Keywords: | media, advertisements, gender, aspirations, choice scenarios, beliefs |
| JEL: | J16 J22 L82 M3 |
| Date: | 2025–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_627 |