At the Competence-Centre on Microeconomic Evaluation (CC-ME) we advise and support EU policy making through ex-post causal evaluation and data-driven microeconomic analysis. The CC-ME hosts a Microeconometric Seminar Series to promote discussions with external researchers from academia and other institutions. Our Seminar Series is intended to disseminate advanced research methodologies and topics in the field of microeconomic evaluation. To further disseminate the benefits of our Series across the JRC, we post a summary of the presented papers together with the presenters' views and opinions on their research and the future of the field of Applied Economics. |
Last week we had the pleasure of having Professor Silva from the Centre for Research in Higher Education Policies (CIPES) present his work: When Girls Enter STEM.
In his work, Professor Silva evaluates the impact of rising feminization on wages over the life cycle across fields of study while accounting for the changing job skill requirements.
He uses rich longitudinal data on the population of workers and firms in the private sector in Portugal and finds that wages within a field of study react to the share of females. Preliminary results indicate that a 10 p.p. increase in the share of female workers from a given major decreases wages by 5-6%.
To learn more about Professor Silva's work and opinions about the future of the field of Applied Economics we asked him to briefly answer a series of questions. You can find his answers to each of our questions below.
Q: What attracted you to research the topics in your paper? A: I was attracted to this topic, because despite the increasing participation of women in the labor market, gender differences in major and occupational choices persist, contributing to the gender pay gap. Understanding whether increasing female participation in STEM fields can help close this gap is both an important economic and policy question. |
Q: Where is the research area where your paper fits moving? A: Research in this area is evolving along two key strands: understanding the gender gap in the choice of field of study, evaluating policies that encourage women to enter STEM, and analysing the impact of the feminization of occupations on wages and career progression. |
Q: What, in your opinion, will the next breakthrough in Applied Economics be? A: The next breakthrough in Applied Economics will likely come from better integration of administrative data linkage that will allow us to better identify the impact of policies aimed, for instance, at reducing gender disparities and improving labor market efficiency. |
The CC-ME team would like to congratulate Professor Pedro Luis Silva for his insightful research and thank her for presenting it in our Seminar Series.
For more information on the upcoming presentations and how to participate in our Seminar Series please visit our dedicated website.
| Originally Published | 19 Feb 2025 |
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