Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Extracurricular Activities, Information Asymmetry, and Labor Markets

经济学博士论文研究：课外活动、信息不对称和劳动力市场

• 批准号: 2215219
• 负责人: Sandra Black
• 金额: $ 2.5万
• 依托单位: Columbia University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2215219&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Economics; Extracurricular

Studies find that elite firms—top consulting, finance, and law firms—heavily rely on extracurricular activities in hiring decisions, activities that favor upper-class people. This practice may worsen demographic gaps in labor market outcomes because access to, and persistence in, extracurricular activities is highly correlated with socioeconomic background. In addition, people from low-income backgrounds may not be aware that these extracurricular activities are important in firms’ hiring decisions. This lack of awareness may further exacerbate disparities across socioeconomic groups: if disadvantaged students misunderstand the importance of extracurricular activities, then this may keep them from high paying jobs and higher salaries to which advantaged students have access. This project will use economic theory and experiments to study employer hiring preferences as well as students’ (mis)understanding of employer preferences by conducting surveys and experiments on employers and college students participating in on-campus recruiting. The results of the study can enrich the growing academic, legal, and public discourse in the US about meritocracy in higher education (and beyond), structural discrimination, and the future of work. The results of this research will provide inputs into policies to improve the functioning of labor markets, and thus foster economic growth and reduce earnings inequality.This project seeks to answer two research questions: How and why do employers use extracurricular activities in hiring? What are the mechanisms and impacts of information asymmetry among job seekers about employers’ reliance on extracurriculars? The project will conduct surveys and experiments on both the demand and supply sides of on-campus recruiting labor markets, including employers and junior/senior college students. To address the first question, the project will elicit employer preferences using a detailed Incentivized Resume Rating exercise to study what employers value, particularly, preferences over extracurricular activities with varying costs, time investment, and personality traits. This project will also conduct an information intervention experiment to examine whether employers use extracurriculars to extract information about the unobserved productivity of applicants. The second question will be addressed by conducting a hypothetical Incentivized Resume Rating exercise on students and compare the results with the stated preferences of employers to test whether employers’ and students’ beliefs are aligned, and if not, whether this varies by students’ socioeconomic characteristics, time-use, and peer group networks. The project will gather data on job offers and salaries that students obtained to examine whether demographic differences in the degree to which information asymmetry can explain group-level disparities in labor market outcomes. The results of this research will provide inputs into policies to improve policies to improve the functioning of labor markets, and thus foster economic growth and reduce earnings inequality.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

研究发现，精英公司（Top Consulting，Finance和Law Firms和律师事务所）依靠课外活动在雇用决策中，有利于上层阶级的活动。这种做法可能在劳动力市场成果中的人口差距更严重，因为获得并持续存在的课外活动与社会经济背景高度相关。此外，来自低收入背景的人可能不知道这些课外活动在公司的招聘决定中很重要。缺乏意识可能会进一步超出社会经济群体之间的差异：如果受影响的学生误解了课外活动的重要性，那么这可能会使他们无法获得高薪工作和更高的薪水。该项目将使用经济理论和实验来研究雇主雇用偏好以及学生（MIS）对员工偏好的了解，通过对参加校园内招聘的员工和大学生进行调查和实验。这项研究的结果可以丰富美国在高等教育（及以后），结构性歧视以及工作未来的学术，法律和公众话语中不断增长的学术，法律和公众话语。这项研究的结果将为改善劳动力市场运作的政策提供投入，从而促进经济增长并减少收入不平等。该项目试图回答两个研究问题：雇主如何以及为什么在招聘中使用课外活动？求职者在雇主对课外活动的依赖中信息不对称的机制和影响是什么？该项目将对校园内招聘劳动力市场的需求和供应方面进行调查和实验，包括雇主和初中/高级大学生。为了解决第一个问题，该项目将使用详细的激励简历评级练习来引起雇主的偏好，以研究雇主的价值，尤其是对提取活动的偏好，具有不同成本，时间投资和人格特征。该项目还将进行信息干预实验，以检查雇主是否使用有关应用程序未观察到的生产力的提取信息。第二个问题将通过对学生进行假设激励的简历评级练习，并将结果与​​既定的员工偏好进行比较，以测试员工和学生的信念是否保持一致，如果没有，是否可以通过学生的社会经济特征，时间使用时间，时间使用时间和同伴小组网络进行比较。该项目将收集有关学生获得的数据和薪水的数据，以检查信息不对称性的人口差异是否可以解释劳动力市场成果中的群体级别差异。这项研究的结果将为改善劳动力市场运作的政策提供投入，从而促进经济增长并减少收入不平等。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子的评估和更广泛的影响来通过评估来获得的支持。