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To attend, please register via Google Forms: At this link. The workshop will take place online, via zoom.
Abstracts
“Reaching Gender Parity in Congress:The Mexican Case”, by Arturo Romero Yanez - Georgetown University
Abstract: One of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals is reaching gender parity in political representation. Mexico is the first country to achieve sustained gender parity in its Congress at the federal and state levels. This came after the (potentially unintended) experimentation with gender quota rules capping the share of candidates increasingly closer to 50% for each gender. I find that women’s political participation as candidates increased by 30% after the introduction of quotas in elections for Congress. I also find that despite the considerable increase in participation as candidates, women’s likelihood of winning a race remains the same in the average district. I discard that this is due to any substantial changes in the political qualifications of male and female candidates. Modeling the decision process of a rational party leader competing over candidate quality and gender predicts that a lack of a change in the mean candidate’s political qualifications is only consistent with discrimination from party leaders and voters against women. My findings are relevant to policymakers working on women’s empowerment through representation, and political actors, and it is important for the conversation about affirmative policies.
“The Role of Early Exposure to Technology in Women’s STEM Choices” , by Margaux Suteau - LSE
Abstract: This paper investigates the effects of a unexplored mechanism in the reinforcement of gender biased choices in education: the exclusion of girls from tools with significant learning potential at an early age. I address this question by using an exogenous shock in the provision of technology, a particular relevant tool to study as it is both used at a young age and strongly associated with tech-oriented STEM tracks, on choices in post-secondary education. I first quantitatively show for the first time that girls are often discouraged from engaging with technology using data on household equipment rates and children use and self-confidence with technology in 2000 in France. My findings reveal that while more than half of households with children in France had access to a computer, girls used computers less often and exhibited a lack of confidence when it comes to using computers. Next, I use a rich survey on students’ post-secondary education and their living conditions as well as staggered difference-in-difference methods to assess the causal effect of a large-scale program in France that provides massive access to technology on the likelihood of women studying STEM subjects in higher education. The results show that the program increased the likelihood of women entering math-intensive tracks and technology-oriented subfields such as computer science.
“Trade-induced Structural Transformation and Household-level Inequality: Lessons from Vietnam”, by Anri Sakakibara - King’s College
Abstract: Much is understood about how trade affects gender inequality in terms of labour force participation and wages at the firm and sector level. However, how trade affects gender inequality at the household-level is an under explored area of research. This paper uses the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) that came into force in 2001 to explore how the disproportionate expansion of female-intensive sectors can trigger the structural transformation of the female labour force, and how this affects women’s share of contribution to the total household income. By using a panel data from the Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey and through exploiting provincial variation in exposure to the BTA, I find that women increased their contribution to the total household income by 10.8 percentage points in the 4 years following the implementation of the trade agreement. I then examine whether the closing of the spousal household contribution gap led to changes in the allocation of household resources that could be indicative of higher female intrahousehold bargaining power, and find that household consumption of `female-preferred’ goods did not increase. An explanation for why women’s intrahousehold bargaining position did not improve is that since divorce is not widely practiced in Vietnam, and since exposure to the BTA did not lead to a change in norms surrounding divorce, women’s threat option did not become more credible in circumstances of noncooperative bargaining between spouses.
“Assessing the extent, the evolution, and the sources of inequality of opportunity in Sierra Leone”, by Giorgia Zotti - University of Bari
Abstract: This paper provides a comprehensive overview of inequality of opportunity in Sierra Leone, with a focus on consumption and education as key indicators of well-being. Using data from the Sierra Leone Integrated Household Survey (SLIHS) 2018, the main aim of this research is to assess the inequality and identify its main sources. The paper examines consumption inequality to understand disparities in accessing and utilizing economic resources. Additionally, it analyzes the evolution of education inequality over time through a cohort analysis (before 1959; 1960 and 1969; 1970 and 1979; 1980 and 1989; after 1990). Finally, a decomposition analysis is conducted to determine the primary factors contributing to inequality in consumption and education. The goal is to identify areas that require intervention to reduce inequalities and promote a more equitable distribution of opportunities for all individuals in Sierra Leone.
“Intersecting Inequality in Unemployment Scarring: Evidence from the Swiss Labor Market”, by Dario Meili - UTH ZUrich
Abstract: Unemployment can have persistent negative impacts on workers’ future outcomes. Using administrative records from the Swiss unemployment system and the social security registers from 2010 to 2019, I test how the effect of unemployment on subsequent earnings differs across different social identities, particularly gender and migration status. Comparing first-time unemployed to workers that will eventually become unemployed, I employ a stacked difference-in-difference design to quantify the impact of unemployment on earnings by social identity. Results indicate significant and enduring earnings losses, with a 26% reduction on average. Furthermore, I observe disparities in unemployment scarring across subgroups. While the gender gap in earnings losses is minimal (1.4 percentage points), there is a substantial difference of approximately 13 percentage points between foreigners and individuals without a migration background. However, I observe large intersectionalities within these groups and age-related patterns. Whereas for younger job-seekers, Swiss women and migrants (of any gender) face higher relative disadvantages, for older job-seekers, Swiss men tend to be more disadvantaged. This study sheds light on intersectional dynamics that amplify existing inequalities caused by unemployment. Understanding these disparities is crucial for designing effective policies and interventions to mitigate negative consequences for vulnerable groups.
“Firm Wage Inequality: Capital-Skill Complementarity and Sorting”, by Gabriele Macci - EUI
Abstract: This paper studies how technological change affects labor reallocation in the economy and how the latter feeds into changes over wage inequality. In our model, the workforce is partitioned into white and blue-collars and, within each category, workers are heterogeneous in their quality. Firms operate by hiring both white and blue-collars and differ one another on their labor composition on two margins: the quality and the intensity of their labor factors. In addition, each firm chooses capital optimally to fit with its labor force. Technological change encourages firms to invest in more capital, which feeds back into their labor composition decisions, and ultimately in the distribution of wages across firms in the economy. We compare our simulated model to Italian data for 1998 and 2001. The model qualitatively replicates the data increased (decreased) inequality within (between) firms. We decompose inequality changes into three channels, namely worker-capital complementarity, worker-teammates complementarity and a compositional effect. Worker-capital complementarities are the dominant source of changes in inequality for the within firm component while all three channels are important to account for the shifts in the between firms component of inequality.
“Cultural capital and the (intergenerational) persistence of higher education: The case of France”, by Raphaelle Aulagnon - Bocconi University
Abstract: This paper examines the role of cultural capital in determining access to elite higher education in France, with a focus on the dual system of Grandes Ecoles (GE) and Universités (U). Using a reduced-form strategy and a structural model, we analyse the persistence of cultural capital across generations and simulate counterfactual policies to evaluate their impact on ability levels in GE and cultural reproduction. Our findings suggest that cultural capital is a determinant factor in accessing elite education and exhibits high persistence. The estimated coefficient for cultural capital in the knowledge Cobb Douglas production function for admission to GE is 0.74, with a cultural capital persistence of 0.85. We also find that targeting the least cultural capital endowed students has positive effects on ability levels in GE and reduces cultural reproduction. The analysis contributes to understanding the potential of cultural reproduction as an explanation for the sorting of students into higher education institutions.
“Grants vs. Loans: the Role of Financial Aid in College Major Choice” , by Yannick Reichlin - European University Institute
Abstract: Using administrative data from Chile, we analyze whether financing higher education through student loans or grants affects the joint decision of enrollment and field choice of prospective students. We exploit institutional arrangements that allocate either type of financing based on a standardized test to locally identify exogenous variation in access. Students that are marginally eligible for grants are more likely to enroll in higher education and do so predominantly in STEM related fields. Combining a regression-discontinuity design with a discrete choice model, we provide evidence that this effect is driven by grants acting as insurance mechanism against uncertainty about degree completion.