Gender difference in expert voice: Evidence from economics

“Gender difference in expert voice: Evidence from economics”

ABSTRACT:

Analysing data from a panel of expert economists, we show that male economists are more likely to give an opinion on a topical policy statement. This is true across all fields in economics and on topics that are within the experts’ field and outside their field. To shed light on the possible cause of the gender gap, we turn to Twitter and show that male economists get a stronger and more positive response to their economic opinions than female economists. This suggests that the gender gap may be at least partly due to different reactions to male and female opinions.

BIO:

Sarah Smith is an applied micro-economist whose research covers public and labour economics.  She is currently working on issues in both pro-social behaviour and gender. Sarah is founder and co-chair of Discover Economics, a campaign to increase diversity among economics students. She has been chair of the Royal Economic Society’s (RES) Women’s Committee (2017-20), an elected member of the RES council (2012-2017) and the European Economics Association council (2014-2018), and Deputy Chair of the REF2021 Economics and Econometrics sub-panel. Sarah was awarded an OBE in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to economics and education.

You may follow the seminar online via ZOOM meetings at the following link: https://unibocconi-it.zoom.us/j/96117372450