Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Paternalistic Discrimination

该奖项资助了一个创新的研究项目，以测试旨在实现公平的政策可能产生的意外后果。它将使用经济理论和实地试验来测试，不聘用被认为“危险”的工作(家长式歧视)是否会导致劳动力市场上系统性和一般性的歧视。它还测试了这种家长式的歧视是否造成了对某些工作的隔离。这项研究将提供对招聘做法的机制的洞察，这些招聘做法最初可能是出于好意，但最终伤害了他们原本打算帮助的人。这项研究的结果将为实现劳动力市场公平的政策设计提供投入。这一结果还将提高劳动力市场的效率，从而促进经济增长，改善所有美国人的生活水平。这一结果还将有助于确立美国在利用市场机制实现公平方面的全球领先地位。这一奖项将资助一项创新研究，该研究将家长式招聘的理论模型与两项实地试验相结合，并将其实际应用于夜班工作的招聘决策。研究人员通过实验改变了雇主或员工是否被告知员工回家的安全，从而观察到供需双方对女性员工安全和福利增加的反应。研究人员用调查数据补充了实验结果，以评估：(I)家长式歧视对横向和纵向普遍隔离的影响，(Ii)家长式歧视作为一种限制劳动潜力和工作准备的系统性歧视形式的作用，以及(Iii)各种政策在世界各地不同行业增加女性就业的潜力。这项研究的结果将为改善劳动力市场功能、提高劳动生产率和经济增长以及减少歧视性招聘做法的政策提供投入。这一结果还将有助于确立美国在利用市场机制实现公平方面的全球领先地位。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award funds an innovative research project to test for possible unintended consequences of policies designed to achieve equity. It will use economic theory and field experiments to test whether not hiring for jobs that are considered “dangerous” (paternalistic discrimination) results in systematic and general discrimination in the labor market. It also tests for whether this paternalistic discrimination creates segregation into certain jobs. This research will provide insights into the mechanisms through which hiring practices which may have started with good intentions end up hurting the people they were intended to help. The results of this research will provide inputs into the design of policies to achieve equity in the labor market. The results will also improve efficiency of the labor market, and thus increase economic growth and improve the living standards for all Americans. The results would also help establish the US as a global leader in using market mechanisms to achieve equity. This award will fund an innovative research that combine a theoretical model of paternalistic hiring with two field experiments with real applications to hiring decisions for a night-shift job. The researchers experimentally vary whether employers or workers are informed about safe employee transport home, thereby observing both supply and demand responses to perceived increases in female employee safety and welfare. The researchers complement the experimental results with survey data to assess the: (i) effect of paternalistic discrimination on horizontal and vertical general segregation, (ii) role of paternalism as a form of systemic discrimination that restricts labor potential and work readiness, and (iii) the potential of various policies to increase female employment across different industries around the world. The results of this research will provide inputs into policies to improve the functioning of labor markets, increase labor productivity and economic growth, as well as reduce discriminatory hiring practices. The results would also help establish the US as a global leader in using market mechanisms to achieve equity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.