| dc.description.abstract | This research consists of three separate essays each focused on information, how it affects human preferences and decision-making, and its effects on marginalized groups.
In the first essay, I test a common hypothesis for the gender gap in STEM, which is believed to drive much of the gender gap in earnings. Specifically, it is believed that women are more responsive to the negative grade signals that are common in STEM. I test this by applying a regression discontinuity design to the underlying numerical scores of more than 21,000 university students in feeder courses in STEM and economics. Results indicate that letter grade thresholds (with no plus/minus modifiers in this context) have no effect on STEM major choice for either women or men. This is true even for susceptible subgroups, within particular majors, or at particular grade thresholds.
The second essay is motivated by the racially charged rhetoric which often surrounds layoff events, with specific minorities blamed for the loss of “American jobs.” A coauthor and I examine whether information about impending mass layoffs causes racial animus. Our data consist of information on mass layoff notices linked to Google Search Trends and FBI Hate Crime Statistics. We compare outcomes across areas that vary in the timing of news of impending layoffs. Results indicate an increase in both racist internet searches (1.5 percent) and hate crimes (23 percent) following layoff notices.
In the third essay, which is also coauthored, we remark how media ownership has become more concentrated in recent years, leading to concerns over media integrity and pluralism as well as the nature of the information being passed on to the public. In this paper, we study the impact of broadcast television ownership consolidation on ideological preferences. To do so, we use a difference-in-differences design to examine the impact of within-market consolidation on election outcomes. Results show that within-market consolidation shifted vote share towards Democrats by 3-4 percentage points for both presidential and senate elections, and that this effect persists for at least 12 years. | |
