Opting Out among Women with Elite Education: Evidence, Causes, and Societal Consequences with Joni Hersch

Hersch’s research shows that female graduates of elite institutions have lower labor market involvement than their counterparts from less selective institutions, with the gap most pronounced among those with children, and especially mothers with an MBA. This talk will provide recent evidence on opting out among women with elite education and examine the role of differences in preferences as well as economic factors in explaining the grater tendency of elites graduates to have lower labor market activity. We will also address societal consequences of reduced labor market activity among women graduates of elite institutions on prospects for women to advance through the professions, whether workplace inflexibility is an important barrier to women’s professional advancement, and implications for intergenerational equity. Speaker: Joni Hersch, Professor of Law and Economics, Vanderbilt University