“Time-Use and Subjective Well-Being: Is Diversity Really the Spice of Life?” with Claudia Senik. Research in Labor Economics, Forthcoming. 

Using the American and the French time-use surveys, we examine whether people have a preference for a more diversified mix of activities, in the sense that they experience greater well-being when their time schedule contains many different activities rather than is concentrated on a very small number. This could be due to decreasing marginal utility, as is assumed for goods consumption, if each episode of time is conceived as yielding a certain level of utility per se. With returns to specialization, people would then face a trade-off between efficiency and diversity in choosing how to allocate time. We examine these issues and investigate potential gender differences, considering both instantaneous feelings and life satisfaction.

“Gender, Culture and STEM: Counter-Intuitive Patterns in Arab Society.” With Moshe Justman. Economics of Education Review, 2020. 

Using longitudinal administrative data to track student achievement and choice, we show how social conditioning shapes gender differences in the choice of STEM study fields, after controlling for prior achievement and socio-economic background. The male majority in advanced matriculation electives in mathematics, physics, and computer science, observed among students in Hebrew-language schools in Israel as in other Western societies, is reversed among Arab students, a society with markedly less gender equality. This greater representation of Arab female students in STEM study fields is only partially explained by the large gender gap favoring girls in eighth-grade mathematics and science achievement in Arabic-language schools. Much of the remaining difference in gender gaps can be traced to differences in the relationship between prior circumstance and choice between the two groups. This belies the notion of a congenital female aversion to traditionally male STEM subjects, and accords with previous findings that gender differences in preferences are greater in societies with greater gender equality. Following a cohort of eight-grade students to matriculation eliminates the selection bias that attenuates estimates of gender gaps in studies that analyze choices of college-bound students.

Press coverage: Haaretz 12/2014 (Hebrew); Israel HaYom 10/2019

“Gender Streaming and Prior Achievement in High School Science and Mathematics.” with Moshe Justman. Economics of Education Review, 2016. 

Girls choose advanced matriculation electives in science and mathematics almost as frequently as boys, in Israel, but are very much under-represented in physics and computer science, and over-represented in biology and chemistry. We test the hypothesis that these patterns stem from differences in mathematical ability. Administrative data on two half-cohorts of Israeli eighth-grade students in Hebrew-language schools links standardized test scores in mathematics, science, Hebrew and English to their subsequent choice of matriculation electives. It shows that the gendered choices they make remain largely intact after conditioning on prior test scores, indicating that these choices are not driven by differences in perceived mathematical ability, or by boys’ comparative advantage in mathematics. Moreover, girls who choose matriculation electives in physics and computer science score higher than boys, on average. Girls and boys react differently to early signals of mathematical and verbal ability; and girls are less adversely affected by socioeconomic disadvantage.

Press coverage: Calcalist 04/2016 (Hebrew)

“From Pink-Collar to Lab Coat: Cultural Persistence and Diffusion of Socialist Gender Norms.” with Claudia Senik. (Under review) 

This paper documents the persistence and diffusion of Soviet gender-equal norms,exploiting the 1990’s mass migration from the Former Soviet Union to Israel as a natural experiment. We track educational achievement and choices of an entire cohort, comparing gender gaps among Native students versus immigrants from FSU and other countries. We find evidence of vertical and horizontal diffusion of Soviet norms with respect to tertiary study field choice, especially those directly related to labor market occupations. In both traditionally male-dominated STEM fields and traditionally female “pink collar” jobs, such as education and social work, gender gaps are smallest among FSU immigrants. We show that these specific preferences are not explained by comparative advantages, as measured by early achievement.Finally, we show that among Natives the gender gap in field choice narrows with the presence of FSU immigrants, reflecting a shift in choice patterns of native women shift towards STEM and away from Pink collar study fields.
LSE Business review

“Family Background, Educational Attainment and Earnings: The limited value of “test-score transmission”” with Moshe Justman
Slides , AEA Presentation recording (starts at 1:23:39)

Even the most egalitarian education systems employ high-stakes tests to regulate the transition from universal secondary education to selective academic programs that open doors to skilled, well-paid professions. This gives parents a strong incentive to invest substantial resources in improving their children’s’ achievement on these tests, thus reinforcing dynastic socioeconomic advantage through “test-score transmission”. Using longitudinal administrative data to follow Israeli students in Hebrew-language schools from eighth grade to age 29, we provide evidence that despite Israeli schools being publicly financed and tuition-free, test-score transmission is very much prevalent. Second-generation (SG) students with more educated and affluent parents do much better on the screening tests that regulate access to the most selective tertiary academic programs than first-generation (FG) students with similar eighth-grade test score ranks. Yet this advantage does not manifest itself in earnings differentials at age 29, controlling for eighth grade achievement, which are statistically insignificant or even reversed. This is consistent with eighth-grade test scores reflecting individual human capital; SG parents investing in their children's test-taking abilities and improving their access to selective tertiary programs; and employers not valuing these skills and  compensating employees according to their observed productivity.  Both men and women exhibit these patterns.

“Child Support Guidelines in Israel: A Suggested Paradigm Shift” with Ruth Halperin-Kaddari. Conditionally accepted, HUKIM - Journal on Legislation (Hebrew).
Slides (English)

The determination of child support rests on the concept of the “cost a child”, interpreted as the marginal effect of a child on household expenditure. Our analysis highlights the normative and practical implausibility of this concept as it assumes separability of household consumption between children and their parents. In our framework, the optimal level of child support aims to meet a level of household expenditure (income), post-divorce, which ensures a decent standard of (material) living, in relation to the household’s standard of living prior to divorce. While estimates of the cost of the “marginal” child assume as given the existence of public goods used by adults in the household, our approach recognizes that a decent standard of living cannot be achieved for one member of the household (the child) separately from that of the parent with whom the child resides. As a result, standard of living thresholds are set at the household level and therefore include transfers to secure the standard of living for all household members, post-divorce. We use the FEI method (Ravallion, 2010) to construct two standard of living thresholds—minimal standard of living (FEI poverty line) and decent standard of living (food security is just guaranteed and the marginal utilities of food and non-food are equal). Applying the model to households in Israel, we show that standards are binding for the majority of households in Israel, up to the 7-8 income deciles (depending on the number of children), and entail higher child support than alternative models imply. Finally, we discuss the effect of divorce on material well-being for households at the lower end of the income distribution and the role of the state in mitigating these effects.

Information Flows in Healthcare Teams: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Jorge Ale-Chilet, Juan Pablo Atal, and Hannah Trachtman
Project funded by BSF: United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation, grant No. 2020272.
AEA RCT Registry

“Mapping the margins: Gender, Domestic Work and Informality in Israel”

“Mommy or Career Track? Estimating the effect of leave duration and the role of mandatory maternity leave"

"Critical Evidence-Based Policy Making" with Shachar Timor-Shlevin