https://twitter.com/katy_rob8/status/1277688050118586368
Who knew we would just have to do just a 15 minute intervention to DOUBLE the number of female econ majors?
Give me a an effing break. Does no-one have any skepticism any more?
The Gender Problem in Economics is SOLVED!
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Do you have specific concerns with the paper?
At first pass the effect seems extremely large, something which hasn't been found anywhere else.
Even it is was this large, other fields would take note and the effect would fade in equilibrium.
Sample size very small.
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The problem is that we use mathematics, every STEM discipline that uses mathematics has the same problem. the solution is simple either we stop using mathematics or something needs to be done in K-12 about female mathematics education. It is clear that the humanities people behind gender equity want us to stop using mathematics and we therefore have an impasse.
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I see. So you planning on reading it or have you already figured out that this is how you’re going to dismiss it?
Do you have specific concerns with the paper?
At first pass the effect seems extremely large, something which hasn't been found anywhere else.
Even it is was this large, other fields would take note and the effect would fade in equilibrium.
Sample size very small. -
I see. So you planning on reading it or have you already figured out that this is how you’re going to dismiss it?
Do you have specific concerns with the paper?
At first pass the effect seems extremely large, something which hasn't been found anywhere else.
Even it is was this large, other fields would take note and the effect would fade in equilibrium.
Sample size very small.
I said at first pass. I feel like I'm being trapped. You asked for an opinion.
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OK, so we just need to send "successful and charismatic women who majored in economics at the same university" to first-years and we solve the problem. Sounds legitimate. The outcomes are not diverse enough, so shift preferences through advertising (role models).
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Do you have specific concerns with the paper?
At first pass the effect seems extremely large, something which hasn't been found anywhere else.
Even it is was this large, other fields would take note and the effect would fade in equilibrium.
Sample size very small.I am skeptical about the equilibrium effect. What if the mentorship simply diffuse the information that Econ has become sociology lite but with much better pay?
Then that percentage increase is just a transfer of aspiring sociologists into the Econ program. These aspiring sociologists wouldn’t join other STEM fields because no real respectable pay you to study sociology in a STEM department.
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The magnitude here blows away other estimates. Rachel Griffith finds *no* effect on % of female majors driven by an *entire* first year course with a female instructor.
The only estimate in the literature with a large shift is the Chetty one: make the first-year course less math-intensive and more focused on applied social issues than on abstract theory or macroeconomics. I don't doubt this is true, but I think it would be bad for the field to go that way.
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"One role model graduated in 2008 and started her career by working in management consulting for two years. She then decided to completely change her career path by going to work for an international NGO in Nicaragua and then at a toy company based in Honduras as a director of operations. She now works in operations at a fast-growing candy retail company. The second role model graduated in 1991 and has had a stellar career in marketing, becoming the senior director of North American Marketing and Information Technology at a large international communications company. While the two role models work in very different sectors, what they have in common is that their jobs are not stereotypically associated with the economics major."
Not sure if the mentors are going to improve the gender ratio beyond undergraduate. It seems the idea is to introduce economics as an easy cash cow degree, with a quick exit to industry.
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This effect size reminds me of LaCour and Green, who demonstrated that simply a 20-minute conversation with a gay canvasser produced a large and sustained shift in attitudes toward same-sex marriage for Los Angeles County residents.
This was my first thought too.
The editors should be ashamed for letting this publish. I don't even suggest anything fraudulent. There's just no way it's true, even if they did everything right. It's like that pysch study claiming to demonstrate ESP is real.