Women's Empowerment | Gender Lab

Don't Stick a Spoon in Marital Disputes?

Rui Costa, Olivia Masi, Beatriz Ribeiro, Matteo Sandi

We estimate the impact of sentencing severity on the dynamics of domestic violence. The study uses ten years of merged individual-level administrative registers on domestic violence cases brought to the police and family linkages for Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). Leveraging Brazil’s “Lei do Feminicidio”, which was implemented in March 2015 to include the crime of “femicide” in the Brazilian penal law, we find that sentencing severity significantly affects the behavior of both offenders and victims of domestic violence. While the policy change seemingly deterred potential offenders by reducing the incidence of domestic violence, victims of domestic violence became more likely to ask for protective measures and more reluctant to press charges against their abusive partners, as a framework of compensating mechanisms would predict. For a policymaker seeking to design effective sentences to combat domestic violence, the tension between these outcomes appears critical.

Overstretched: Financial Distress and Intimate Partner Violence in the US

Olivia Masi and Chiara Santantonio

This study examines the effect of financial distress within households on intimate partner violence in the United States. By leveraging the timing of bank closing days and fixed wage payment schedules, we identify months when households have to stretch their finances due to changes in their regular payment schedules. Using monthly records from the National Crime Victimization Survey, we find that these shocks increase the likelihood of women experiencing IPV. We further corroborate the assumption of worsened financial conditions during these periods by documenting changes in household behavior in terms of expenditures and time use. Using Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) data, we show that households reduce their expenditures on food and leisure during periods of financial stretch. Additionally, using American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data, we find an increase in time devoted to consumption research. We also observe that spouses spend more time together, particularly with their children, during these periods.

Statistical Discrimination and Committes

J. Ignacio Conde-Ruiz, Juan Jose Ganuza, Paola Profeta

European Economic Review (2022)

We develop a statistical discrimination model where groups of workers differ in the observability of their productivity signals by the evaluation committee. We assume that the informativeness of the productivity signals depends on the match between the potential worker and the interviewer: when both parties have similar backgrounds, the signal is likely to be more informative. Under this ‘‘homo-accuracy’’ bias, the group that is most represented in the evaluation committee generates more accurate signals, and, consequently, has a greater incentive to invest in human capital. This generates a discrimination trap. If one group is initially poorly evaluated (less represented into the evaluation committee), this translates into lower investment in human capital of individuals of such group, which leads to lower representation in the evaluation committee in the future, generating a persistent discrimination process. We explore this dynamic process and show that quotas may be effective to deal with this discrimination trap. We show that introducing a ‘‘temporary’’ quota allows to reach a steady state equilibrium with a higher welfare when groups have similar size in the population. If instead the discriminated group is underrepresented in the workers’ population (for example because of his race), restoring efficiency requires to implement a ‘‘permanent’’ system of quotas.

Do Board Gender Quotas Matter? Selection, Performance and Stock Market effects

Giulia Ferrari, Valeria Ferraro, Paola Profeta, Chiara D. Pronzato

Management Science (2021)

From business to politics and academia, the economic effects of the introduction of gender quotas are under scrutiny. We provide new evidence based on the introduction of mandatory gender quotas for boards of directors of Italian companies listed on the stock market. Comparing before and after the reform within firms, we find that quotas are associated with a higher share of female board directors, higher levels of education of board members, and a lower share of older members. We then use the reform period as an instrument for the share of female directors and find no significant impact on firms' performance. Interestingly, the share of female directors is associated with a lower variability of stock market prices. We also run event studies on the stock price reaction to both the announcement and the introduction of gender quotas. A positive effect of the quota law on stock market returns emerges at the date of the board's election. Our results are consistent with gender quotas giving rise to a beneficial restructuring of the board, which is positively received by the market.

Do Women Matter in Monetary Policy Boards?

Donato Masciandaro, Paola Profeta, Davide Romelli

American Law and Economics Review (2021)

We construct a new dataset on the presence of women on central bank monetary policy committees for a set of 103 countries, over the period 2002-2016. We document an increasing share of women in monetary policy committees, which is mainly associ- ated with a higher overall presence of women in central banks and less so with other institutional factors or country characteristics. We then investigate the impact of this trend on monetary policymaking by estimating Taylor rules augmented to include the share of women on monetary policy committees. We show that central bank boards with a higher proportion of women set higher interest rates for the same level of in- flation. This suggests that women board members have a more hawkish approach to monetary policy. We confirm this result by analysing the voting behaviour of members of the executive board of the Swedish Central Bank during the period 2000-2017.