CAREER: Understanding How Markets Work in Enough Detail So We Can Fix Them When They're Broken

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This CAREER award funds research that uses economic theory and empirical methods to answer two research questions.The first set of projects examine gender differences and labor markets. The PI examines how labor markets work and whether they work differently for women and men. The PI builds and analyzes a new mathematical model of labor markets that focuses on the idea that someone is hired into a job when an employer 'matches' with an employee. She uses this model to study practices that are adopted by some employers to deal with real world factors that limit the employer's ability to review a large number of individual job applications and applicants. She also uses this model to gauge the possible efficiency gains from implementing specific affirmative action measures.She also conducts economic experiments to measure the size and sources of gender differences in performance on common classroom and job tasks. Her previous research suggests that gender differences in competitive attitudes may be part of the reason for these differences. Her CAREER research includes going beyond these preliminary results to consider whether gender affects the choice of work tasks. Her research also looks for underlying reasons why we observe gender differences in confidence even when both men and women receive ample feedback on task performance.The educational component of the CAREER activities includes working with a wide variety of students and professional organizations to improve the job search process in STEM fields.This research will help us to understand what kinds of institutions and practices can enhance how both men and women perform in classroom settings and in employment searches.