CV
Carolyn M. Sloane
Labor Economist
EMPLOYMENT
Assistant Instructional Professor, University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy, 2023--2024
Assistant Professor, University of California, Riverside, Department of Economics, 2016-2023
Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy, 2018-2019
EDUCATION
Doctor of Philosophy, University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy, 2016
Masters of Business Administration, University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, 2010
Bachelor of Arts, Vanderbilt University, College of Arts and Science, 2005
Research: Labor Economics
RESEARCH
Abstract: The paper assesses gender differences in pre-labor market specialization among the college-educated and highlights how those differences have evolved over time. Women choose majors with lower potential earnings (based on male wages associated with those majors) and subsequently sort into occupations with lower potential earnings given their major choice. These differences have narrowed over time, but recent cohorts of women still choose majors and occupations with lower potential earnings. Differences in undergraduate major choice explain a substantive portion of gender wage gaps for the college-educated above and beyond simply controlling for occupation. Collectively, our results highlight the importance of understanding gender differences in the mapping between college major and occupational sorting when studying the evolution of gender differences in labor market outcomes over time.
*Previous version circulated as “A Cross-Cohort Analysis of Human Capital Specialization and the College Gender Wage Gap"
“Technological Change and Disability Over the 2000s”
Abstract: Over the 2000s, declines in aggregate employment were remarkable in both the magnitude and persistence of losses. This paper seeks to understand a potential response to softening labor market conditions: entry into the Social Security Disability Insurance (DI) program. Using a regional design and shift-share instrumentation strategy, this paper finds that the weakest local labor markets experienced the largest increases in local disability participation over this period. From 2000 to 2015, a 1 standard deviation decrease in predicted labor demand in routine occupations caused a 76.4% of a standard deviation increase in local DI participation. Notably, this paper presents the first causal evidence that the effects are stronger for the largest category of hard-to-verify diagnostic claims: musculoskeletal diagnoses.
“Rising Wage Inequality and Human Capital Investment” with Lancelot Henry de Frahan
Abstract: The real effects of rising wage inequality are a first-order concern due to the potentially dampening effects on growth and opportunity. Whether increasing local wage inequality incentivizes or chokes off human capital investment is an open empirical question. Using a local labor market design and an innovative instrument to predict changes in local wage distributions, we establish a startling fact: Over the 2000s, fewer people enrolled in community colleges in the very labor markets where the returns to skill were increasing. Further, we find that labor markets with predicted increases in wage inequality also experienced increased income segregation. Individuals on the margin of investment experienced increasingly poor environments in which to acquire skills.
GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS & HONORS
Affordable Course Materials Grant, UC Riverside, 2017
Blum Initiative Faculty Research Seed Grant, UC Riverside, 2017
Mellon Advancing Intercultural Studies Seminar: Selected Participant, UC Riverside, 2017-2018
Undergraduate Research Fellowship (Faculty Mentor to Awardee), UC Riverside, 2017-2018
Graduate Student Distinguished Service Award, University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, 2015
Pre-doctoral Research Fellowship, National Opinion Research Center, 2014-2016
PhD Fellowship, University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, 2013-2016
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS AND INVITED SEMINARS
Omicron Delta Epsilon Induction Keynote Speaker, University of Redlands, March 2022
Becker Friedman Institute, Visiting Scholar, Winter 2022
Econ Society: Women in Economics Panel, Loyola Marymount University, March 2021
NBER Summer Institute: Gender in the Economy , July 2020
EALE SOLE AASLE, June 2020
Economics Workshop, UC Irvine *postponed Covid-19, May 2020
Gender Conference University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse * canceled Covid-19, March 2020
Demography Workshop, University of Chicago, May 2019
Labor Seminar, UC Santa Barbara, May 2018
Becker Friedman Institute, Visiting Scholar, February 2018
Southern Economic Association Annual Conference, November 2017
Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management Fall Research Conference, November 2017
Midwest Econometrics Group Meeting , October 2017
International Atlantic Economic Society Conference, October 2017
Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management International Conference, July 2017
Western Economic Association International Annual Conference, June 2017
International Association for Applied Econometrics Annual Conference, June 2017
Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, University of Kentucky, February 2016
Applied Economics, UC Riverside, February 2016
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, January 2016
Center for Human Potential and Public Policy (CHPP), Chicago Harris, November 2015
Microeconomics Workshop, Chicago Booth, October 2015
Midwest Political Science Association Annual Conference, April 2015
TEACHING
Rockonomics: Public Policy and Creative Sectors, University of Chicago, upcoming 2023-2024 AY
PBPL 2000, Economics for Public Policy, University of Chicago, upcoming 2023-2024 AY
PPHA 58101, Economics for Public Policy (evening students), University of Chicago, upcoming 2023-2024 AY
ECON 150, Rockonomics, University of California, Riverside
ECON 240, PhD Labor Field Course: Labor Demand, University of California, Riverside
ECON (GSST, PBPL) 155, Women & the Labor Market , University of California, Riverside
ECON 157, Labor in the Public Sector, University of California, Riverside
PPHA 41750, Women and Labor Markets, University of Chicago
PBPL 26886, Women and Labor Markets (Undergraduate), University of Chicago
PPHA 31002, Statistics for Data Analysis I, University of Chicago
ECON 243, PhD Labor Field Course, Topics in Labor Economics, University of California, Riverside
OTHER EXPERIENCE
Staff, United States Senate, 2005-2008