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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Are Women Really More Risk-Averse Than Men? A Re-Analysis Of The Literature Using Expanded Methods, Julie Nelson
Are Women Really More Risk-Averse Than Men? A Re-Analysis Of The Literature Using Expanded Methods, Julie Nelson
Julie A. Nelson
While a substantial literature in economics and finance has concluded that “women are more risk averse than men,” this conclusion merits investigation. After briefly clarifying the difference between making generalizations about groups, on the one hand, and making valid inferences from samples, on the other, this essay suggests improvements to how economists communicate our research results. Supplementing findings of statistical significance with quantitative measures of both substantive difference (Cohen's d, a measure in common use in non-‐Economics literatures) and of substantive overlap (the Index of Similarity, newly proposed here) adds important nuance to the discussion of sex differences. These measures …
The Organic Beauty Industry: A Gendered Economic Review, Brianna D. Connelly
The Organic Beauty Industry: A Gendered Economic Review, Brianna D. Connelly
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organic beauty has grown to a $6 billion dollar industry supplying consumers with products that align with unique social consumption preferences. This thesis explores the historical economic perspective of the traditional beauty industry and the development of the organic beauty industry. Capitalism influenced the traditional beauty industry during the pursuit for profits that lead to jeopardizing customer and environmental safety. Consumers responded to this behavior by founding an organic beauty industry that not only considered social issues, but negated gendered beauty standards in the process. Organic product efficacy has emerged as an issue that must be dealt with by regulation …
Not-So-Strong Evidence For Gender Differences In Risk, Julie Nelson
Not-So-Strong Evidence For Gender Differences In Risk, Julie Nelson
Julie A. Nelson
In their article "Strong Evidence for Gender Differences in Risk Taking," Gary Charness and Uri Gneezy (2012) review a number of experimental studies regarding investments in risky assets, and claim that these yield strong evidence that females are more risk averse than males. This study replicates and extends their article, demonstrating that its methods are highly problematic. While the methods used would be appropriate for categorical, individual-‐level differences, the data reviewed are not consistent with such a model. Instead, modest differences (at most) exist only at aggregate levels, such as group means. The evidence in favor of gender difference is …
Fearing Fear: Gender And Economic Discourse, Julie Nelson
Fearing Fear: Gender And Economic Discourse, Julie Nelson
Julie A. Nelson
Economic discourse—or the lack of it—about fear is gendered on at least three fronts. First, while masculine-‐associated notions of reason and mind have historically been prioritized in mainstream economics, fear—along with other emotions and embodiment—has tended to be culturally associated with femininity. Research on cognitive "gender schema," then, may at least partly explain the near absence of discussions of fear within economic research. Second, in the rare cases where fear is discussed in the contemporary economics literature, there is a tendency to (overly-‐)strongly associate it with women. Finally, historians and philosophers of science have suggested that the failure to consider …
Explaining The “Explained”: An Examination Of The Gender-Based Education Gap In India And Its Impact On The Wage Gap, Kanupriya Rungta
Explaining The “Explained”: An Examination Of The Gender-Based Education Gap In India And Its Impact On The Wage Gap, Kanupriya Rungta
CMC Senior Theses
Analysis of the National Sample Survey Data from 2011-2012 shows that a gender-based education gap exists. Women are more likely than men to be illiterate. Some parents continue to view household duties as more important than education in the case of girls, causing some to drop out in primary and middle school, which leads to lower experience accumulation. However, females are almost equally as likely as males to be enrolled in school, and an equal proportion of males and females earn higher education degrees. More importantly, the difference in resource allocation seems to be minimal. Although education has a strong, …
Unprotected Sex: The Pregnancy Discrimination Act At 35, Deborah L. Brake, Joanna L. Grossman
Unprotected Sex: The Pregnancy Discrimination Act At 35, Deborah L. Brake, Joanna L. Grossman
Articles
Thirty-five years ago, Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act to overturn a Supreme Court decision refusing to recognize pregnancy discrimination as a form of discrimination based on sex. Now, three and a half decades later, women whose work lives are impacted by pregnancy are again finding themselves unprotected from discrimination. Lower court rulings have eviscerated the Act’s protections at the same time that an expansion of worker rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act should redound to the benefit of pregnant women by expanding the pool of comparators who receive accommodations. By following trends in discrimination law generally - equating …
The Power Of Stereotyping And Confirmation Bias To Overwhelm Accurate Assessment: The Case Of Economics, Gender, And Risk Aversion, Julie A. Nelson
The Power Of Stereotyping And Confirmation Bias To Overwhelm Accurate Assessment: The Case Of Economics, Gender, And Risk Aversion, Julie A. Nelson
Julie A. Nelson
Behavioral research has revealed how normal human cognitive processes can tend to lead us astray. But do these affect economic researchers, ourselves? This article explores the consequences of stereotyping and confirmation bias using a sample of published articles from the economics literature on gender and risk aversion. The results demonstrate that the supposedly “robust” claim that “women are more risk averse than men” is far less empirically supported than has been claimed. The questions of how these cognitive biases arise and why they have such power are discussed, and methodological practices that may help to attenuate these biases are outlined.