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Gender Economics: Dead-Ends and New Opportunities

Shelly Lundberg (University of California, USA)

50th Celebratory Volume

ISBN: 978-1-80455-126-4, eISBN: 978-1-80455-125-7

Publication date: 23 January 2023

Abstract

The economics literature on gender has expanded considerably in recent years, fueled in part by new sources of data, including from experimental studies of gender differences in preferences and other traits. At the same time, economists have been developing more realistic models of psychological and social influences on individual choices and the evolution of culture and social norms. Despite these innovations, much of the economics of gender has been left behind, and still employs a reductive framing in which gender gaps in economic outcomes are either due to discrimination or to “choice.” I suggest here that the persistence of this approach is due to several distinctive economic habits of mind – strong priors driven by market bias and gender essentialism, a perspective that views the default economic agent as male, and an oft-noted tendency to avoid complex problems in favor of those that can be modeled simply. I also suggest some paths forward.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

My thanks to Deborah Cobb-Clark, Julie Nelson, Almudena Sevilla, Dick Startz, Meredith Startz, Megan Stevenson, two anonymous referees, and the editors of this volume for helpful comments. I bear sole responsibility, however, for all opinions and any errors in this paper.

Citation

Lundberg, S. (2023), "Gender Economics: Dead-Ends and New Opportunities", Polachek, S.W. and Tatsiramos, K. (Ed.) 50th Celebratory Volume (Research in Labor Economics, Vol. 50), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 151-189. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0147-912120230000050006

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

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