Previous research has shown that norms around the role of women in society could help explain the gender gap in mathematics and that these norms could be transmitted within the family. Using data ...from the Florida Department of Education combined with birth certificates, we uncover important heterogeneity in the transmission of gender biases within the family. We find that gender role norms can explain the lower performance of girls in mathematics only in relatively affluent White families, whereas they do not apparently matter for the performance of Black girls.
We evaluate the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) on shareholders by studying the lobbying behavior of investors and corporate insiders in order to affect the final implemented rules under SOX. ...Investors lobbied overwhelmingly in favor of strict implementation of SOX, while corporate insiders and business groups lobbied against strict implementation. We identify firms most affected by the law as those whose insiders lobbied against strict implementation. Such firms appear to be characterized by agency problems, rather than motivated by concerns over compliance costs. Cumulative stock returns during the five and a half months leading up to SOX passage were approximately 7% higher for corporations whose insiders lobbied against SOX disclosure-related provisions than for similar non-lobbying firms, consistent with an expectation that SOX would reduce agency problems. Analysis of returns in the post-passage implementation period suggests that investors' positive expectations with regards to the effects of these provisions were warranted.
Is mistrust self-fulfilling? Reuben, Ernesto; Sapienza, Paola; Zingales, Luigi
Economics letters,
08/2009, Volume:
104, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We study experimentally the effect of expectations on whether trust is repaid. Subjects respond with untrustworthy behavior if they see that little is expected of them. This suggests that guilt ...aversion plays an important role in the repayment of trust.
This study investigated (1) sex differences in hormonal responses to psychosocial stress; (2) the relation between variability in pre-test hormone concentrations and stress-induced hormonal changes; ...and (3) some possible sources of within-sex variation in pre-test hormone concentrations and in hormonal responses to the test in a large human subject population. To this end, changes in salivary concentrations of testosterone and cortisol in response to a mild psychosocial stressor (a set of computerized economic decision-making tests) were measured in a sample of over 500 MBA students. Males had higher concentrations of testosterone and cortisol than females both before and after the test. After taking effects of time of testing on hormone concentrations into account, testosterone showed a post-test decrease in males but not in females. Cortisol level increased in both sexes but the post-test increase was larger in females than in males. At the individual level, the pre-test concentrations of testosterone and cortisol predicted both the direction and the magnitude of the post-test hormone change, so that low pre-test hormone concentrations showed large post-test increases whereas high pre-test concentrations showed large post-test decreases. Within-sex variation in hormone concentrations was not accounted for by variation in 2D:4D digit length ratio, a marker of prenatal androgen exposure, but by social variables. Single males without a stable romantic partner had higher testosterone level than males with stable partners, and both males and females without a partner showed a greater cortisol response to the test than married individuals with or without children. Studies conducted with large sample sizes such as this one can help understand normative patterns of hormonal responses to psychosocial stimuli as well as identify the sources of interindividual variation in endocrine function.
The persistence of U.S. unemployment has risen with each of the last three recessions, raising the specter that future U.S. recessions might look more like the "Eurosclerosis" experience of the 1980s ...than like the traditional V-shaped recoveries of the past. We revisit several explanations for this rising persistence, decomposing them into three possible sources: business cycle fluctuations, changing policy responses, and propagation mechanisms. First, we find that financial shocks do not systematically lead to more persistent unemployment than monetary policy shocks, casting doubt on the hypothesis that different drivers of business cycles are the primary explanation. Second, we find that changing monetary and fiscal policy responses account for approximately one-third of the rise in unemployment persistence. Third, after examining three propagation mechanisms we find that jointly they cannot account for any rising persistence of unemployment. The three propagation mechanisms we focus on-declining labor mobility, changing age structures, and the decline in trust among Americans-are consistent with four other cyclical patterns that have evolved since the early 1980s: a rising cyclicality in long-term unemployment, lower regional convergence after downturns, rising cyclicality in disability claims, and missing disinflation. We exploit regional variation in labor market outcomes across Western Europe and North America during 1970-91 to assess the predictive capacity of each propagation mechanism for unemployment persistence. In summary, two-thirds of the rise in unemployment persistence is unexplained.
Cultural biases in economic exchange? Guiso, Luigi; Sapienza, Paola; Zingales, Luigi
The Quarterly journal of economics,
08/2009, Volume:
CXXIV, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
How much do cultural biases affect economic exchange? We answer this question by using data on bilateral trust between European countries. We document that this trust is affected not only by the ...characteristics of the country being trusted, but also by cultural aspects of the match between trusting country and trusted country, such as their history of conflicts and their religious, genetic, and somatic similarities. We then find that lower bilateral trust leads to less trade between two countries, less portfolio investment, and less direct investment, even after controlling for the characteristics of the two countries. This effect is stronger for goods that are more trust intensive. Our results suggest that perceptions rooted in culture are important (and generally omitted) determinants of economic exchange. Reprinted by permission of the MIT Press
Culture, Gender, and Math Guiso, Luigi; Monte, Ferdinando; Sapienza, Paola ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
05/2008, Volume:
320, Issue:
5880
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Analysis of PISA results suggests that the gender gap in math scores disappears in countries with a more gender-equal culture.
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