Seminar in Applied Microeconomics

Date: 

Thursday, September 24, 2020, 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Location: 

Zoom meeting (link to be sent on Listserv)

Blake Hellar (Harvard University), "Immigrant Integration in the United States: The Role of Adult English Language Training (with Kirsten Slungaard Mumma)"
Louise Paul Delvaux (Harvard University), "Women on Boards: Intra-firm Effects of a Gender Quota for French Corporate Boards (with FX Ladant)"

Blake Heller: Immigrant Integration in the United States: The Role of Adult English Language Training (with Kirsten Slungaard Mumma)

While current debates center on whether and how to admit immigrants to the United States, little attention has been paid to interventions designed to help them integrate after they arrive. Public adult education programs are the primary policy lever for building the language skills of the over 23 million adults with limited English proficiency in the United States. We leverage the enrollment lottery of a publicly funded adult English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) program in Massachusetts to estimate the effects of English language training on voting behavior and employer-reported earnings. Attending ESOL classes more than doubles rates of voter registration and increases annual earnings by $2,400 (56%). We estimate that increased tax revenue from earnings gains fully pay for program costs over time, generating a 6% annual return for taxpayers. Our results demonstrate the social value of post-migration investments in the human capital of adult immigrants.

Louise Paul Delvaux: "Women on Boards: Intra-firm Effects of a Gender Quota for French Corporate Boards (with FX Ladant​​​)​​​​"

To tackle the under-representation of women in top labor market positions, several European countries have implemented strict gender quotas. In 2011, France passed a law mandating 40% representation of each gender on the board of large companies. Leveraging this reform and brand new datasets, we aim to bring new evidence on the impact of corporate board quota and provide a rigorous assessment of whether the reform reached its goal of increasing gender equality at different levels of the firm hierarchy. We first document the change in board composition, including that the women appointed to these boards post-reform were observably more qualified. We then assess the effect of gender quotas on a wide range of firms' economic outcomes: intra-firm gender wage and work time gap both for current employees and for new hires, women's promotions to top positions as well as gender representation in other intra-firm governance bodies. Although the long-term impact might differ, we see very little short-term effects on gender gap outcomes beyond the sheer increase in female representation in the boardroom. 

Contact: Tridevi Chakma (tchakma@g.harvard.edu)