Published Papers

Student Evaluations of Teaching (Mostly) Do Not Measure Teaching Effectiveness, 
ScienceOpen Research (January, 2016), with Kellie Ottoboni & Philip B. Stark.

Gender Biases in Student Evaluations of Teaching, Journal of Public Economics 145 (2017): 27-41.

Aspiring Top Civil Servants' Distrust in the Private Sector, Revue d'Economie Politique 128(6)(2018): 1047-1087, with Claudine Desrieux & Romain Espinosa. 

Work in Progress

Reducing Discrimination in the Field: Evidence from an Awareness Raising Intervention Targeting Gender Biases in Student Evaluations of Teaching, with Arnaud Philippe (R&R, Journal of Public Economics)
This paper presents the results of a field experiment designed to reduce gender discrimination in student evaluations of teaching (SET). In the first intervention, students receive a normative statement reminding them that they should not discriminate in SETs. In the second intervention, the normative statement includes precise information about how other students (especially male students) have discriminated against female teachers in previous years. The purely normative statement has no significant impact on SET overall satisfaction scores, suggesting that a blanket awareness-raising campaign may be inefficient to reduce discrimination. However, the informational statement appears to significantly reduce gender discrimination. The effect we find mainly comes from a change in male students’ evaluation of female teachers.

​​​Gender, Competition and Choices in Higher Education, with Jen Brown (draft available)
Survey data on labor market outcomes of university students in France reveal early career gender gaps within almost every field of study. We provide descriptive evidence of a plausible labor supply-side cause for the persisting gender starting-salary gap: choices within an educational setting continue to differ between male and female students. We examine the choices of undergraduate students at a selective French university, who compete for spots in foreign universities where they will fulfill their mandatory exchange program requirements. Holding fixed the field of study and accounting for individuals’ underlying academic ability, we find that average- and high-ability female students request universities that are worse than their academic standing. Using simulations, we consider the impact of other allocation rules. We find that both male and female students would be better off, on average, if female students asked for better-ranked schools. Whereas average-ability male students compete against higher-ability female students in reality, our simulations make them better off, as they are made to compete against female students of equivalent ability. The results of a survey designed to elicit students’ preferences suggests that female students have broader tastes for higher education. Overall, we find that the competition effects are mainly driven by a small group of very focused men.

Gender Diversity in Firms, with Ghazala Azmat
This paper explores the recent drive by the corporate world and public policy to increase the number of women in leadership positions in the workplace. We review and empirically evaluate the “business case” for gender equality, showing some evidence in favour of it. Despite the evidence and growing support, progress towards more diversity in leadership positions has been slow. We study the importance of supply-side constraints, as well as the main diversity policies (gender quotas, mentoring and network programs, diversity training to change firm culture, and family friendly policies) that have been implemented. We focus on the effectiveness of these policies, their shortcomings, as well as potential future steps that could help guide policy.

The impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on gender norms, with Gloria Moroni
The COVID-19 lockdown has generated a major shock on the allocation of time that individuals could spend on their regular activities. Working parents with young children have been particularly impacted as they have not been able to outsource child care labor. We conduct a survey in France on a representative sample of 1,000 individuals from the working population to study the impact of lockdown on beliefs in gender equality norms and on the division of labor within households (work, childcare and housework). To measure changes in beliefs in gender equality norms, we ask questions from the European Values Study (EVS), and compare responses from our lockdown survey with responses from the 2018 wave of the EVS for France, by matching respondents on observable characteristics. We find large changes in the factors that couples find important for the success of a relationship during lockdown compared to 2018. We more specifically find evidence of a drop in beliefs in gender equality norms during lockdown. Regarding the reorganization of the division of labor within households, we find that the lockdown reduced the gender gap in hours of childcare among highly educated individuals, and in time spent on housework and childcare among partners where the female partner kept working during the pandemic. Overall, however, women were more often unemployed during lockdown, and performed a larger share of household-related labor.

Student aspirations, with Ghazala Azmat, Sophie Cêtre & Roberto Galbiati

Improving Student Evaluations of Teaching

Women in the economics profession: an analysis using RePEc, with Soledad Zignago and Christian Zimmermann