Making Merit
The Lasting Effects of Early-Childhood Education on Promoting the Skills and Social Mobility of Disadvantaged African Americans and Their Children
Jorge Luis García, James Heckman & Victor Ronda
Journal of Political Economy, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper demonstrates the long-term intra- and intergenerational benefits of the HighScope Perry Preschool Project, which targeted disadvantaged African American children. We use newly collected data on the original participants through late middle age and on their children into their midtwenties. We document long-lasting improvements in the original participants’ skills, marriage stability, earnings, criminal behavior, and health. Beneficial program impacts through the child-rearing years translate into better family environments for their children, leading to intergenerational gains. Children of the original participants have higher levels of education and employment, lower levels of criminal activity, and better health than children of the controls.
Utility-value intervention promotes persistence and diversity in STEM
Michael Asher et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 9 May 2023
Abstract:
We tested the long-term effects of a utility-value intervention administered in a gateway chemistry course, with the goal of promoting persistence and diversity in STEM. In a randomized controlled trial (N = 2,505), students wrote three essays about course content and its personal relevance or three control essays. The intervention significantly improved STEM persistence overall (74% vs. 70% were STEM majors 2.5 y later). Effects were larger for students from marginalized and underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, who were 14 percentage points more likely to persist in STEM fields in the intervention condition (69% vs. 55%). Mediation analysis suggests that the intervention promoted persistence for these students by bolstering their motivation to attain a STEM degree and by promoting engagement with course assignments. This theory-informed curricular intervention is a promising tool for educators committed to retaining students in STEM.
Educational Expenditure of Asian American Families
Ziyao Tian
Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, June 2023
Abstract:
Parental spending is an essential measure of parenting styles and is crucial in the intergenerational transmission of advantage. Popular media outlets portray Asian Americans as a “model minority” who invest heavily in education. Past literature on racial spending gaps for children often does not include Asians. A limited number of studies that have examined Asian–White spending gaps focus predominantly on savings and spending for college. Using nationally representative Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CE) Public Use Microdata 2009–2022, this study examines K–12 spending gaps between Asian American and White families and how race interacts with class in affecting parental spending. I find that Asian households outspend Whites overall. A detailed analysis of three academic and three enrichment expenses shows that although Asian spend more on recreational lessons and tutoring, Whites outspend Asians on sports and cultural activities. The spending gap on tutoring is most prominent among households with a graduate degree, not among families with a high school education or below, where the Asian–White achievement gap is the most salient. Considering the increasing weight of home choices in determining the quality of public K–12 education, this study also examines the racial spending gap on housing. A difference-in-difference analysis suggests that Asian households across the educational spectrum spend more on housing for the sake of K–12 children. This spending gap is the most salient among families without a college degree and those with a graduate degree.
The “Good” Schools: Academic Performance Data, School Choice, and Segregation
David Houston & Jeffrey Henig
AERA Open, June 2023
Abstract:
We examine the effects of disseminating school-level academic performance data -- achievement status, achievement growth, or both -- on parents’ school choices and their implications for racial, ethnic, and economic segregation. Many researchers consider growth to be a superior (if still imperfect) measure of school effectiveness relative to status. Moreover, compared to status, growth has weaker relationships with schools’ demographic compositions. We conduct an online survey experiment featuring a nationally representative sample of parents and caretakers of children ages 0–12. Participants choose between three randomly sampled elementary schools drawn from the same school district. The provision of status information guides participants toward schools with higher achievement status and fewer Black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students. The provision of growth information and the provision of both types of academic performance data guide participants toward higher growth schools. However, only growth information -- alone, and not in concert with status information -- tends to elicit choices with desegregating consequences.
How the 1963 Equal Pay Act and 1964 Civil Rights Act Shaped the Gender Gap in Pay
Martha Bailey, Thomas Helgerman & Bryan Stuart
NBER Working Paper, June 2023
Abstract:
In the 1960s, two landmark statutes -- the Equal Pay and Civil Rights Acts -- targeted the long-standing practice of employment discrimination against U.S. women. For the next 15 years, the gender gap in median earnings among full-time, full-year workers changed little, leading many scholars and advocates to conclude the legislation was ineffectual. This paper uses two different research designs to show that women’s relative wages grew rapidly in the aftermath of this legislation. The data show little evidence of short-term changes in women’s employment, but some results suggest that firms reduced their hiring and promotion of women in the medium term.
The gender wage gap and its effect on women’s entrepreneurship
Yosef Bonaparte et al.
Applied Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
We demonstrate an inverse relationship between women’s financial equality status with men (as proxied by gender wage gap), and women’s entrepreneurship participation at the U.S. state level. Gender wage gap affects women’s opportunity cost of the entrepreneurship decision. In states where women’s status is lower, women’s opportunity cost of becoming an entrepreneur is lower because their wages are lower, increasing women’s entrepreneurship participation. We also demonstrate that states’ demographics are important factors, but only education is specific to women. Collectively, we find that women choose to be entrepreneurial when their status is lower, which reflects women’s economic resiliency.
Cassatts in the Attic
Marlène Koffi & Matt Marx
NBER Working Paper, June 2023
Abstract:
We analyze more than 70 million scientific articles to characterize the gender dynamics of commercializing science. The double-digit gender gap we report is explained neither by the quality of the science nor its ex-ante commercial potential, and is widest among papers with female last authors (i.e., lab heads) when publishing high-quality science. Using Pitchbook database, we show that when authors self-commercialize scientific discoveries via new ventures, no gap appears, raising the question of whether incumbent firms are unaware of -- or ignore -- scientific contributions by women. A natural experiment based on the Obama administration’s staggered introduction of open-access requirements for federally-funded research reveals that although easier access to scientific articles might facilitate commercialization, this benefit accrues primarily to male authors. Articles written with more “boastful” language are commercialized more often, and female scientists generally boast less, but even when they do their discoveries are commercialized no more often. We also observe gender homophily between scientific authors and commercializing inventors, the majority of whom are male. We conclude with the potential welfare effects of the gender gap: the disparity is more pronounced for higher-quality discoveries, as indicated by academic and patent citations or by predicted probabilities of commercialization derived from deep-learning algorithms.
The Impact of Financial Stress on Workplace Harassment and Discrimination
Ayushi Narayan
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
I study the impact of financial stress on the incidence of harassment and discrimination using Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) charges brought forward by U.S. Postal Service workers. An analysis of more than 800,000 EEO charges filed between 2004 and 2019 demonstrates that financial stress experienced in the second week of the pay cycle increases EEO incidents by about 5% compared with the first week. Further analyses suggest that the uncovered effects are driven by changes in the number of incidents rather than in their reporting.
Getting a Worker: Recruiters, Culture, and On-the-Job Skilling
Keenan Wilder
Sociological Forum, June 2023, Pages 532-552
Abstract:
This article explores the relationship between employer hiring for skill and cultural matching. Using 68 semi-structured interviews with recruiters and human resources professionals, I argue that costly on-the-job skilling can push employers to try to stabilize their workforce by, among other things, hiring socially similar applicants. Recruiters for high turnover cost roles considered cultural matching essential to their work, while in other cases it played little to no role. I conclude by discussing the implications of hiring-for-fit and on-the-job skilling for scholarship on labor markets and social inequality.
Does the follow-your-passions ideology cause greater academic and occupational gender disparities than other cultural ideologies?
John Oliver Siy et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Five preregistered studies (N = 1934) demonstrate that the prevalent U.S. ideology to “follow your passions” perpetuates academic and occupational gender disparities compared to some other cultural ideologies. Study 1 shows that the follow-your-passions ideology is commonly used by U.S. students in making academic choices. Studies 2–5 find that making the follow-your-passions ideology salient causes greater academic and occupational gender disparities compared to the resources ideology (i.e., the idea that one should pursue a field that leads to high income and job security). In Study 4, the follow-your-passions ideology causes greater gender disparities even when compared to a cultural ideology that aligns more with the female gender role (i.e., communal ideology). In Study 5, a moderated mediation analysis supports the hypothesis that gender disparities are explained by women’s versus men’s greater tendency to draw upon female role-congruent selves when the follow-your-passions ideology is salient compared to when the resources ideology is salient. Drawing upon female role-congruent selves remains a significant mediator even when accounting for alternative mediators (e.g., appropriateness of ideology for one’s gender). The follow-your-passions ideology may not seem explicitly gendered, but it causes greater academic and occupational gender disparities compared to some other cultural ideologies.
When Majority Men Respect Minority Women, Groups Communicate Better: A Neurological Exploration
Rachel Amey, Kyle Emich & Chad Forbes
Small Group Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Groups must leverage their members’ diverse knowledge to make optimal decisions. However, the gender composition of a group may affect this ability, particularly because solo status female members (one female grouped with males) are generally allocated lower status than their male counterparts, so their knowledge is more likely to be ignored. Whereas most previous work suggests ways solo status women can increase their status; instead, we propose that groups communicate better when men give their female teammate appropriate respect. We examine this in mixed-gender groups working on a hidden profile task while wearing wireless EEGs to measure live neural activity. We find that groups who solve the problem correctly are more likely to contain majority male members with more approach-oriented mindsets, operationalized as neural alpha asymmetry, as they respect their female teammate more. Thus, we provide evidence that neural activity is partially responsible for whether mixed-gender groups make optimal decisions.
Estradiol and the Catechol-o-methyltransferase Gene Interact to Predict Working Memory Performance: A Replication and Extension
Courtney Louis et al.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, July 2023, Pages 1144-1153
Abstract:
Decades of evidence across taxa have established the importance of dopamine (DA) signaling in the pFC for successful working memory performance. Genetic and hormonal factors can shape individual differences in prefrontal DA tone. The catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) gene regulates basal prefrontal DA, and the sex hormone 17β-estradiol potentiates DA release. [Jacobs, E. G., & Goldstein, J. M. The middle-aged brain: Biological sex and sex hormones shape memory circuitry. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 23, 84–91, 2018] investigated the moderating role of estradiol on cognition using the COMT gene and COMT enzymatic activity as a proxy for pFC DA tone. They found that increases in 17β-estradiol within women at two time points during the menstrual cycle influenced working memory performance in a COMT-dependent manner. Here, we aimed to replicate and extend the behavioral findings of Jacobs and D'Esposito by employing an intensive repeated-measures design across a full menstrual cycle. Our results replicated the original investigation. Within-person increases in estradiol were associated with improved performance on 2-back lure trials for participants with low basal levels of DA (Val/Val carriers). The association was in the opposite direction for participants with higher basal levels of DA (Met/Met carriers). Our findings support the role of estrogen in DA-related cognitive functions and further highlight the need to consider gonadal hormones in cognitive science research.