The impact of gender stereotypes on economic growth

This paper argues that gender-specific educational choices have macroeconomic consequences in terms of economic growth. The presence of a social norm affecting persons choosing gender atypical educations at the university level generates a suboptimal allocation of ability, which lowers technological change and the stock of human capital, and thus hurts growth. The analysis of a cross-section of 88 countries over the period 1970 to 1998 lends empirical support for the importance of the educational gender stereotypes for economics growth.economic growth; ability; higher education; gender-specific educational choices; social norms

Constructing Gender in the Economics Lab

Several experimental studies on altruism have found women to be more generous than men. We investigate whether observed gender gaps in generosity can be explained by experimental setting, where some settings are more conducive than others to activating gender identity and social norms. In a dictator game we study priming along two dimensions: 1) some subjects enter their gender on the first page of the questionnaire (Pre) while others enter their gender on the last page (Post) and 2) some subjects are seated in single-sex rooms (Homogeneous) while others are seated in gender-mixed rooms (Mixed). It turns out that gender differences occur (women are more generous than men) only for the combination Pre and Mixed. The effect is driven by males: men are sensitive to priming, while women are not.Gender roles; social norms; altruism; generosity; dictator game; priming

Resource curse or not: A question of appropriability

This paper shows that whether natural resources are good or bad for a country's development depends crucially on the interaction between institutional setting and the type of resources that the country possesses. Some natural resources are for economical and technical reasons more likely to cause problems such as rent-seeking and conflicts than others (termed technically appropriable resources). This potential problem can, however, be countered by good institutional quality (rendering these resources less institutionally appropriable). In contrast to the traditional resource curse hypothesis we show that the impact of natural resources on economic growth is non-monotonic in institutional quality. Mineral rich countries are cursed only if they have low quality institutions, while the curse is reversed if institutions are good enough. Using new data we find that this is even more stark for countries rich in diamonds and precious metals.natural resources; appropriability; property rights; institutions; economic growth; development

Resource curse or not: A question of appropriability

This paper shows that whether natural resources are good or bad for a country’s development crucially depends on the interaction between institutional setting and the type of resources possessed by the country. Some natural resources are, for economical and technical reasons, more likely to cause problems such as rent-seeking and conflicts than others. This potential problem can, however, be countered by good institutional quality. In contrast to the traditional resource curse hypothesis, we show the impact of natural resources on economic growth to be non-monotonic in institutional quality. Countries rich in minerals are cursed only if they have low quality institutions, while the curse is reversed if institutions are sufficiently good.Natural Resources, Appropriability, Property Rights, Institutions, Economic Growth, Development

Is Team Formation Gender Neutral? Evidence from Coauthorship Patterns

We investigate if voluntary team formation is gender neutral. To this end, we model team formation as a random matching process influenced by the agents' preferences for team size and gender composition and derive how team formation depends on the gender ratio in the population of prospective team mates. We then test if the coauthorship pattern in articles published 1991-2002 in three top Economics journals is gender neutral, exploiting the variation in female presence across subfields of Economics. Our main finding is that gender sorting in coauthorship increases in the presence of women. In particular, we find that the gender gap in the propensity to coauthor with a woman increases in the presence of women in the subfield. We also find that women single author significantly more than men. These findings allow us to reject gender neutrality in team formation.Team Formation; Gender Sorting; Coauthorship Patterns

Is Team Formation Gender Neutral? Evidence from coauthorship patterns.

We model the formation of teams as a random matching process influenced by the agents’ preferences for team size and gender composition. We test hypotheses regarding gender and team preferences on the patterns of coauthorship in articles published 1991-2002 in three top economic journals. We find that the female/male gap in the probability of having a female coauthor increases with the proportion of female authorships in the field. This, together increases with the finding that women single author significantly more than men and that female single authorship declines more than male ditto as the share of women increases, allows us to reject gender neutrality in team formation in favour of an hypothesis stating that the fraction of individuals who prefer teaming up with their own sex is larger that the fraction who prefer the opposite sex.team formation; gender preference; segregation; coauthorship patterns

Skills, Franchise and Industrialization

In this paper the skill distribution is proposed as being fundamental for technological transitions, besides the economic and political variables normally considered. The setting is an endogenous growth model with non-overlapping generations, where agents are heterogeneous with respect to wealth, skills and political power. It is shown that the skill distributionis as imporant as the initial wealth distribution and the type of political regime in determining the subsequent economic development of a country. The results indicate that the time horizon matters when judging which institutional framework has most potential to generate a technological transition. Moreover, it is shown that there is no setup of initial characteristics that most favors a country's development in all situations. The outcomes of the model are consistent with historical data from 1820 to 1913 for 23 countries.skills; economic development

The Incentives of Future Economists - Striking a Balance between Tools and Relevance

As a contribution to the recent debate about graduate education in Economics, we have surveyed all students enrolled in the Stockholm Doctoral Program in Economics. We believe that this is a good representative of a strong European graduate program which in the early 1990's adopted a US-style structure. Our results show that students enter with a relatively broad academic background and an interest in social science and real world problems, but find that incentives within the program do not encourage participation in the policy debate. To the extent that graduate school is educating idiots savants it is not because students enter with no interest. Our results are remarkably similar to those found by Colander and Klamer (1987) in their survey of American graduate students in the late 1980's.Economics education; graduate education

Preparation of powders mixture of AISI S2 Tool Steel and Silicon Carbide for use in Laser Powder Bed Fusion

Mixing different powders is a promising way to broaden the choice of materials for Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF). However, powders for LPBF must present appropriate rheological properties. Indeed, if the initial batch of powders is not homogeneous, both spreadability and laser - powder interaction suffer, affecting the final part quality. This work thus focuses on the preparation of mixed AISI S2 tool steel and silicon carbide (SiC) powders for use in LPBF. To promote the complete dissolution of SiC in the melt pool, spray dried granules of SiC nanoparticles were selected. A combination of sieving, ball milling and thermal treatment was finally selected as it resulted in good rheological properties of the powders mixture and in a good quality of the final part