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IEB Report 4/2023: Polítiques educatives: qualitat i igualtat d’oportunitats

Les economies de mercat van acompanyades inevitablement de desigualtats econòmiques. No obstant això, la desigualtat econòmica avui no depèn totalment de la generació actual, sinó també de la desigualtat econòmica preexistent. Aquesta desigualtat persisteix al llarg de les generacions i suposa un repte per a les nostres societats. Primer, per raons d’equitat: la família on naixem és una loteria i, per tant, les nostres condicions inicials, que condicionen els nostres resultats a la vida, s’escapen del nostre control. Segon, per raons d’eficiència: unes condicions inicials adverses poden impedir que tothom pugui contribuir a la societat d’acord amb el seu potencial i assolir altes cotes de benestar. Una qüestió essencial, doncs, és com recompensar els mèrits de la generació actual, que es tradueixen en un major benestar social, sense permetre que condicionin el desenvolupament de les properes generacions.

SEMINAR: Elaine M. Liu (University of Houston & NBER) – “Externalities of Marijuana Legalization:Marijuana Use in Non-Legalizing States”

March 5, 2024 – 14.30h – Room 1038

SEMINAR: Jason Sockin (IZA) – “We’ve Got You Covered: Employer and Employee Responses to Dobbs v. Jackson”

February 27, 2024 – 14.30h – Sala de Recepcions

2023/13: Gender differences in high-stakes performance and college admission policies

The Gale-Shapley algorithm is one of the most popular college allocation mechanism around the world. A crucial policy question in its setting is designing admission priorities for students, understanding how they disadvantage certain demographic groups, and whether these di_erences are related to di_erences in college performance potential (i.e., whether these di_erences are fair). Studying a policy change in Spain, we find a negative e_ect of increasing the weight of standardized high-stakes exams on female college admission scores, driven by students expected to be at the top. The effect on admission scores does not affect enrolment, but the percentage of female students in the most selective degrees declines, along with their career prospects. Using data on college performance of pre-reform cohorts, we find that female students most likely to lose from the reform tend to do better in college than male students expected to benefit from the reform. The results show that rewarding high-stakes performance in selection processes may come along with gender differences unrelated to the determinants of subsequent performance.

2023/10: Birds of a feather earn together. Gender and peer effects at the workplace

Utilizing comprehensive administrative data from Brazil, we investigate the impact of peer effects on wages, considering both within-gender and cross-gender dynamics. Since the average productivity of both individuals and their peers is unobservable, we estimate these values using worker fixed effects while accounting for occupational and firm sorting. Our findings reveal that within-gender peer effects have approximately twice the influence of cross-gender peer effects on wages for both males and females. Furthermore, we observe a reduction in the disparity between these two types of peer effects in settings characterized by greater gender equality.

2023/09: How do labels and vouchers shape unconditional cash transfers? Experimental evidence from Georgia

We implemented a randomized control trial in Georgia to study how labels and food vouchers affect household expenditure among low-income recipients of unconditional cash transfers. Households were randomly assigned to receive only an unconditional cash transfer, a label indicating an amount intended for children’s expenses in addition to the transfer, or a portion of the transfer as a food voucher usable exclusively at designated stores. We find that labelling increases the share of expenditure on children. Meanwhile, food vouchers reduce total consumption, this being likely due to the increased cost associated with shopping at voucher-accepting shops.