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DONDENA Seminar - Alessandra Gonzalez

Alessandra Gonzalez
Room 3-B3-SR01, Building Röntgen
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You may follow the seminar at the following link.

 

“Policy Signals, Cultural Norms, and the Misallocation of Talent” 

SPEAKER: Alessandra L. Gonzalez (DUKE University).

ABSTRACT:

Gender and race-based barriers to labor market participation have long been associated with misallocation of talent and capital, with notable impacts on aggregate productivity. We examine the aggregate effects of the 2018 lift of the women’s driving ban in Saudi Arabia. We find that firms and workers react to the announcement of the policy very quickly, and that the announcement is associated with increases in employment and the quality of job matches. There is evidence of significant reallocation of workers across firms in response to the policy, with a surge in the share of firms that hire (any) women and increased movement of male and female employees across firms. We develop a framework that examines how the announcement of the elimination of driving restrictions reduces distortions in the labor market, inducing firms to begin hiring women, raising firm efficiency, and increasing employment and wages for women and men.

 

BIO: 

Alessandra L. González is Assistant Research Professor of Economics at Duke University. Her research centers around three topics: gender, development, and organizations. Dr. González studies the role of culture on gender inequality, particularly measured by economic outcomes such as labor force participation, occupational segregation, and executive leadership in organizations. Her background in a variety of data collection methodologies due to her training in sociology uniquely equips her to work at the forefront of economic research on the mechanisms of discrimination and labor market preference formation of job seekers and employers. She designs survey instruments for unique data sets; conducts in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation; works with original datasets compiled from public sources; and designs field experiments in order to understand dynamic responses for proposed policy interventions. Dr. González's current research agenda is focused on women's economic participation in previously all-male organizations by analyzing information provision and female labor force participation, preference formation of labor market entrants, and adaptation and agency of employers using original and administrative datasets.