The impacts of same and opposite gender alumni speakers on interest in economics

Arpita Patnaik, Gwyn Pauley, Joanna Venator and Matthew Wiswall ()

Economics of Education Review, 2024, vol. 102, issue C

Abstract: This paper evaluates the impact of a series of male and female alumni speaker interventions in introductory microeconomics courses on student interest in economics. Using student-level transcript data, we estimate the effect of speakers in models which use untreated lectures as control groups, including professor and semester-year fixed effects and student-level covariates. Alumni speakers increase intermediate economics course take-up by 1.7–2.1 percentage points (9–12%). Students are more responsive to same-gender speakers, with male speakers increasing men’s course take-up by 36–38% and female speakers increasing women’s course take-up by 37–40% implying that the effect of alumni speakers is strongly gendered.

Keywords: Educational economics; College majors; Gender gaps; Role models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A22 C93 I23 I24 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Working Paper: The Impacts of Same and Opposite Gender Alumni Speakers on Interest in Economics (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:102:y:2024:i:c:s0272775724000736

DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2024.102579

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