Monday, January 08, 2007

Economics PhD job discrimination

The Marginal Revolution blog quotes an economics paper co-written by the Freakonomics guy:
Our results raise an interesting question: Why are some characteristics much stronger predictors of grades than of job placements? Foreign-trained and male students achieve substantially higher first-year grades, on average, but do not appear to be placed into much higher ranked jobs.
I am just guessing here, but there are some obvious explanations. Women benefit from affirmative action programs in both admissions and job placement. A consequence is that men will have better grades and get worse jobs on graduation.

Besides discrimination against men, there may also be discrimination against foreigners. A lot of foreigners speak with heavy accents and may therefore be less desirable for teaching jobs.

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