Despite the significant advances that women have made in terms of reversing the gender gap in education, labor market attachment, and representation in professional spheres, gender gaps in the labor market remain remarkably persistent. In this lecture, I will provide an overview of active areas of research (in economics) exploring the factors that contribute to the remaining disparities. These include recent work on gender differences in psychological attributes, the challenges that women face in achieving work-family balance especially in certain work environments, and the role of gender norms. I will also address the role of public policies and firm practices in addressing these gaps and discuss recent findings on the effectiveness and potential trade-offs of some major policy initiatives such as maternity and paternity leave, childcare subsidies, and gender quotas.

Jessica Pan is an Associate Professor of Economics at the National University of Singapore and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). Jessica is an applied micro-economist, with research interests in labor economics, gender, education, and immigration. Her current projects examine gender differences in labor market and educational outcomes, focusing on under-explored determinants such as gender norms, culture, taste discrimination, as well as gender differences in behavioral traits (such as the willingness to negotiate, risk aversion, and response to competitive pressure). Her work has been published in several leading peer-reviewed journals, including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Labor Economics, and the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Her doctoral research examining the role of social interactions and tipping points in understanding the dynamics of gender segregation in occupations was awarded the 2014-2015 H. Gregg Lewis Prize for best paper published in the Journal of Labor Economics. She was born in Singapore and received a Bachelor’s in economics from the University of Chicago, followed by an MBA and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business.

Please register for the event via this link

Light refreshment will be served after the lecture

This event is hosted by the Research School of Economics, College of Business and Economics