Econ 675

Course Description

This course explores empirical evidence for the causes and consequences of gender inequality across a variety of settings. Explored settings include marriage, fertility, education, labor markets, and women’s health. For each of these, students will critically study original articles of empirical research, as well as reading an overview of the body of empirical evidence. The course includes research focusing on both the global north (US and other high-income countries) and the global south (lower-income countries). In addition to presenting evidence from gender economics, the course also focuses on understanding and assessing empirical methods researchers have used in this field.

Learning Objectives

From this course, students will gain…

· a broad knowledge of topics in gender economics

· familiarity with the body of empirical evidence on each topic

· the ability to critically read original research and assess quality of evidence

· the ability to identify an interesting research question that would make a novel contribution

· the ability to create a plan for rigorous analysis, including identification of relevant data, planning an estimation strategy, and testing for viability

Example Course Modules

Part 1. Households

Marriage Markets

Contraception

Abortion

Fertility Preferences

Women's Empowerment

Women's Education

Part 2. Labor Markets

Gender Earnings Gap

Behavioral Differences by Gender

The Glass Ceiling

The Motherhood Penalty

Bias & Discrimination

Harassment

What students are saying

- - excerpts from course evaluations - -

"Overall, this was a FANTASTIC course. The modules/topics covered were very interesting and relevant. The papers we had to read for the modules were also very interesting and the discussion questions due before the class motivated me to read the papers in greater details. Also, having a speaker each week was a very neat feature of the class."

"What I found most helpful was the exposure to different empirical approaches and Prof Jones' enthusiasm in explaining each one in detail to those who didn’t understand or for whom it was their first time hearing about the concepts."

Example Readings

Field, Erica, and Attila Ambrus. 2008. “Early Marriage, Age of Menarche, and Female Schooling Attainment in Bangladesh.” Journal of Political Economy 116 (5): 881–930.

Goldin, Claudia, and Lawrence F. Katz. 2002. “The Power of the Pill: Oral Contraceptives and Women's Career and Marriage Decisions.” Journal of Political Economy 110 (4): 730–70.

Myers, Caitlin Knowles. 2017. “The Power of Abortion Policy: Reexamining the Effects of Young Women’s Access to Reproductive Control.” Journal of Political Economy 125 (6): 2178–2224.

Ashraf, Nava, Erica Field, and Jean Lee. 2014. “Household Bargaining and Excess Fertility: An Experimental Study in Zambia.” American Economic Review 104 (7): 2210–37.

Bandiera, Oriana, Niklas Buehren, Robin Burgess, Markus Goldstein, Selim Gulesci, Imran Rasul, and Munshi Sulaiman. 2020. “Women’s Empowerment in Action: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial in Africa.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 12 (1): 210–59.

Muralidharan, Karthik, and Nishith Prakash. 2017. “Cycling to School: Increasing Secondary School Enrollment for Girls in India.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 9 (3): 321–50.

Juhn, Chinhui, and Kristin McCue. 2017. “Specialization Then and Now: Marriage, Children, and the Gender Earnings Gap across Cohorts.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 31 (1): 183–204.

Kunze, Astrid, and Amalia R. Miller. 2017. “Women Helping Women? Evidence from Private Sector Data on Workplace Hierarchies.” Review of Economics and Statistics 99 (5): 769–75.

Cortés, Patricia, and Jessica Pan. 2019. “When Time Binds: Substitutes for Household Production, Returns to Working Long Hours, and the Skilled Gender Wage Gap.” Journal of Labor Economics 37 (2): 351–98.

Bagues, Manuel, Mauro Sylos-Labini, and Natalia Zinovyeva. 2017. “Does the Gender Composition of Scientific Committees Matter?” American Economic Review 107 (4): 1207–38.

Basu, Kaushik. 2003. “The Economics and Law of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 17 (3): 141–57.

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