Doctoral Dissertation Research in Economics: Worker Beliefs and the Job Application Behavior

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract One of the largest factors contributing to the gender wage gap is sorting across occupations and industries. This sorting behavior may be driven by workers' second-order beliefs, which are beliefs about other people's beliefs, through the job application decision. This research examines whether second-order beliefs are an important mechanism underlying the sorting by gender through the job application decision. The research explores this question with a structured field experiment by soliciting applications for a real high-paying white-collar job using advertisements that vary the relevant second-order beliefs through varying the gender of the hiring manager and the gender associations of the product sector. After the job application decision of the candidates, their second-order beliefs are elicited through a laboratory experiment to understand how these beliefs affect job sorting. Overall, this proposal sheds light on labor market behavior based on second-order beliefs and has implications for designing recruitment tools to mitigate job sorting by gender and the corresponding gender wage gap. Job sorting behavior is an important factor contributing to the gender wage gap. Beliefs about what employers believe about the relative ability of men and women, which are second-order beliefs, may be a reason why there is job sorting to certain industries and occupations. This study combines a field experiment with an online laboratory experiment to determine whether second-order beliefs affect workers' job application decision. In the field experiment, product lines are varied to reflect occupations traditionally favored by different genders, as well as the gender of managers. Both of these factors are relevant for second-order beliefs of workers. The field experiment is followed by a survey to reveal the second order beliefs of the participants. By combining the field and laboratory data, this proposal provides evidence on how second-order beliefs in the labor market contribute to the gender wage gap through job sorting behavior. 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.