Maria Frech
I am a PhD candidate at Toulouse School of Economics, supervised by Christian Hellwig.
I am a quantitative macroeconomist with research interests in wealth inequality, household finance and entrepreneurship.
You can find my CV here.
Don't hesitate to reach out at maria.frech@tse-eu.fr
Working Papers
The Hidden Demand for Flexibility - A Theory of Gendered Employment Dynamics (with Gerard Maideu-Morera)
Abstract: Empirical evidence highlights women’s demand for flexible working hours as a critical cause of the persistent gender disparities in the labor market. We propose a theory of how hidden demand for flexibility drives gendered employment dynamics. We develop a dynamic contracting model between an employer and an employee whose time availability is stochastic and unverifiable. We model men and women only to differ in their probability of having low time availability, which we measure in the ATUS. We explore contracts designed specifically for each gender (gender-tailored) and the polar case where a male-tailored contract is given to both men and women. For the latter, we show that contracting frictions endogenously give rise to well-documented gendered labor market outcomes: (i) the divergence and non-convergence of gender earnings differentials over the life-cycle, and (ii) women’s shorter job duration and weaker labor force attachment.
Unicredit Award 2025 - best paper on gender economics
Presentations: Vigo Workshop on Dynamic Macroeconomics 2023, SYME 2023, RES 2024, ESEM 2024
Work in Progress
Gender Differences in Savings over the Life Cycle: The Role of Financial Literacy (with Marta Cota and Marta Morazzoni), slides available upon request
Entrepreneurship and Self-employment: Consequences of Life-cycle Timing