Gender in the Economy
Paper Session
Sunday, Jan. 5, 2025 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM (PST)
- Chair: Francisca Antman, University of Colorado-Boulder
Can Temporary Affirmative Action Improve Representation?
Abstract
If employers hold biased beliefs about a particular group, they may be less likely to hire workers from this group, preventing them from learning and correcting their beliefs. This paper experimentally explores whether temporary affirmative action can correct biased beliefs and in turn improve representation even after the policy is lifted. The specific context is that of underrepresentation of women due to inaccurate beliefs and this paper contributes by highlighting the role of exposure to more women due to a temporary affirmative action in correcting biased beliefs and thereby improving representation of women even after the policy is lifted.I elicit employer hiring decisions and beliefs about potential employee performance in two between-subject experimental treatments: a control treatment without affirmative action and a temporary affirmative action treatment. While beliefs and hiring are biased against women in the control treatment, I find in the temporary affirmative action treatment that representation improves even after affirmative action is lifted. This increase is partially driven by employers’ beliefs about performance. Further, employers who are most likely to discriminate against women show the greatest reduction in gender bias in beliefs which in turn explain the shift in hiring choices toward women. The results shed light on how temporary affirmative action policy can alleviate self-perpetuating under-representation by correcting biased beliefs.
Filling the Gaps: Childcare Laws for Women’s Economic Empowerment
Abstract
Women’s disproportionate responsibility for childcare significantly constrains their labor market participation. This paper aims to provide global evidence on whether and what attributes of childcare laws affect women’s labor market outcomes. Our data spans 95 countries from 1991 to 2022, utilizing the World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law (WBL) database for information on childcare laws and indicators related to accessibility, affordability, and quality of childcare services, along with panel data on women’s labor market outcomes from ILOSTAT. We use a difference-in-difference strategy to exploit temporal and country-level variation in the enactment of 70 childcare laws to estimate their effect on female labor force participation.Our findings are as follows. First, the enactment of childcare laws increases the female labor force participation rate by 2.6 percent, on average, and the effect grows over time. Second, immediately after the enactment of the law, employed women showed an increased willingness to work additional hours,
reflected in a 10.4 percent rise in the time-related unemployment rate (i.e., the fraction of employed women who want to work additional hours) in the first two years post-enactment. Third, the share of female youth not engaged in employment, education, or training decreases with the enactment of the law. Lastly, laws regulating the affordability and availability of childcare have a significant impact on women’s labor market outcomes, while the effect of quality standards is smaller. These results suggest that childcare laws free up time for women, who often act as primary caregivers, increasing their labor force participation or engagement in education. This study contributes to the literature by offering a global perspective on formal center-based childcare provision across seven regions and examining multiple aspects of childcare laws (availability, affordability, and quality) simultaneously, unlike prior studies focused on one single country or single determinants of childcare.
Do Parents Save More for a Daughter or a Son? Minorities, Cultural Norms, and Economic Incentives
Abstract
This paper provides empirical evidence that there are disparities in parental savings for their children based on gender and highlights that parents tend to allocate more financial resources to children who are perceived as future breadwinners. We specifically examine the case of a government-sponsored savings program in Israel, focusing on two religious/ethnic minorities (Ultra-Orthodox Jewish and Arab populations) characterized by similar cultural gender biases but distinct economic incentives concerning the future earning potential of girls versus boys. By investigating these minorities, we uncover motivations behind gender favoritism around the world. Our findings reveal that Ultra-Orthodox Jewish parents tend to make additional deposits for girls, anticipating their role as primary breadwinners, while Arab parents allocate extra funds for boys, reflecting their expectations regarding future income prospects. Administrative and survey data provide additional evidence suggesting that the primary driving factor behind this effect is economic incentives and investment in future breadwinners. This outcome proves that gender bias is reversed when economically worthwhile. Such insights should be considered when designing savings programs or when thinking of labor market programs. Biases in the early stages of life impact and are influenced by future economic abilities, potentially leading to significant effects on gender inequality.Discussant(s)
Donna Ginther
,
Kansas University
Yana van der Meulen Rodgers
,
Rutgers University
Marianne Bitler
,
University of California-Davis
Xuechao Qian
,
Stanford University
JEL Classifications
- J1 - Demographic Economics
- J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor