Economics of Gender in the Economics Profession
Paper Session
Friday, Jan. 5, 2024 10:15 AM - 12:15 PM (CST)
- Chair: Francisca Antman, University of Colorado-Boulder
Moving in Academia: Who Moves and What Happens After?
Abstract
TBDParenthood and Academic Career Trajectories
Abstract
Women continue to be underrepresented in the field of economics, particularly among permanent faculty. This paper asks how fertility impacts women's academic careers in economics by estimating child penalties for women and men economists' likelihood of staying in academia, receiving promotions, and publishing research papers. Our analysis relies on administrative data from Denmark covering individuals enrolling in Ph.D. programs in economics, allowing us to overcome survivorship bias. We link data on labor market outcomes, such as whether individuals work in academia, with information on fertility, and high-quality publication data. By studying the population entering Ph.D. programs, we focus on the early pipeline into the profession.Our research provides three insights. First, we document that most of both men and women have children, and we find no evidence that those who remain in academia delay or reduce their fertility compared to those who leave. The arrival of children does not influence graduation rates, and parents are equally likely to publish as non-parents. Second, we show that the mothers publishing before parenthood are positively selected on prior academic performance compared to fathers and compared to other women. Third, our event study estimates show that parenthood persistently reduces women’s likelihood of staying in academia by 10 percentage points relative to men. While both new mothers and fathers leave universities, new mothers are more likely to leave the broader research sector. Among those who stay in academia, women are less likely to obtain tenured positions during the three years following parenthood. The gender gap in the number of publications is insignificant across specifications, and controlling for publications does not influence the gender gap in promotions.
Half Empty and Half Full? Women in Economics and the Rise in Gender-Related Research
Abstract
This paper estimates the contributions of women to the evolution of research ideas and innovation in economics as well as the influence of supply and demand-side factors which contribute to their representation in the economics profession. We begin by linking the universe of doctoral dissertations from ProQuest which include author name, title, field, institution, and dissertation advisors, with indicators of dissertation research topics given by the Journal of Economic Literature codes found in the EconLit database. The resulting data set allows us to use naming algorithms to identify likely gender of the dissertation authors as well as their advisors and explore whether women authors are more likely to write on innovative topics and whether women advisors are more likely to advise dissertations in innovative areas. We also examine whether women authors (advisors) are more likely to write (advise) on topics of particular benefit or interest to women more broadly, thus marking an important contribution of women economists in specific study areas and quantifying the value of demographic diversity in the research realm. Finally, we link women economists by their field of research with data on the demand for economists by field and academic institution given by the Job Openings for Economists (JOE) database to quantify the extent to which field-specific demand constraints affect the representation of women as professional academic economists. Preliminary evidence suggests that women are significantly more likely than men to author dissertations on topics relating to women and gender as well as to write dissertations on topics related to inequality and discrimination. Similarly, women are significantly more likely than men to advise dissertations on these topics. This suggests that women are making important contributions to the study of women and inequality in the economics profession.Discussant(s)
Danila Serra
,
Texas A&M University
Joyce Jacobsen
,
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Shulamit Kahn
,
Boston University
Shaianne Osterreich
,
Ithaca College
JEL Classifications
- A1 - General Economics
- I2 - Education and Research Institutions