【AEW webinar】The Demand for and Effects of Career and Technical Education & College Admission Reform Favors Women, but Much Less in Male-Dominated Disciplines: Evidence from Taiwan
演講者簡介 : Professor Jacob received his Ph.D. in Public Policy from University of Chicago in 2001. In the University of Michigan, he is the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy and professor of economics at the Ford School, and is co-director of the Youth Policy Lab. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research fields are Labor Economics, Public Economics, Economics of Education, and Health Economics.
Professor Wang received his Ph.D. in Economics from University of California, Los Angeles in 2005. He is currently the Distinguished Professor at National Taiwan University. His research fields are Economic Theory, Experimental Economics, and Neuroeconomics.
演講摘要 : One of the most popular explanations for the female underrepresentation in STEM fields is that professors in those fields may be biased against women. Therefore, tests and assessments in the gender-blind form are frequently suggested to be applied when recruiting. In 2002, a reform for college admission in Taiwan was carried out. Rather than only applying written tests in the previous system, more oral tests and reviews on application documents took place and a two-stage design was applied in the new system. By deeming the new system as a natural experiment, this study examines the effect of using non/gender-blind tests on bias against females. We analyze the data containing over 660,000 individuals observed from college admission in Taiwan over the period of 2013-2018. The empirical study result suggests that applying non gender-blind test could increase the pro-portion of females being admitted by 5%. Nonetheless, contrary to the prior studies, only a minor effect is found in the male-dominated disciplines. Our findings have implications for the debate over what interventions are appropriate to increase the representation of women in the fields where they are underrepresented.
