Bolotnyy V, Emanuel N.
Why Do Women Earn Less Than Men? Evidence from Bus and Train Operators. Working Paper.
AbstractFemale workers earn $0.89 for each male-worker dollar even in a unionized workplace
where tasks, wages, and promotion schedules are identical for men and women by design.
We use administrative time card data on bus and train operators to show that the earnings
gap can be explained by female operators taking, on average, 1.5 fewer hours of overtime
and 1.3 more hours of unpaid time-off per week than male operators. Female operators,
especially those who have dependents, pursue schedule conventionality, predictability, and
controllability more than male operators. Analyzing two policy changes, we demonstrate
that while reducing schedule controllability can reduce the earnings gap, it can also make
workers—particularly female workers—worse off.
be_gender_gap.pdf Barreira P, Basilico M, Bolotnyy V.
Graduate Student Mental Health: Lessons from American Economics Departments. Working Paper.
AbstractWe study the mental health of graduate students at Economics PhD programs in the U.S. Using clinically validated surveys, we find that 18% of graduate students experience moderate or severe symptoms of depression and anxiety — more than three times the population average — and 11% report suicidal ideation in a two-week period. The average PhD student reports greater feelings of loneliness than does the average retired American. Only 26% of Economics students report feeling that their work is useful always or most of the time, compared with 70% of Economics faculty and 63% of the working age population. Depression and symptoms of anxiety increase with time in the program: 25% of students in years 5+ of their programs experience moderate or severe symptoms of depression or anxiety compared with 14.5% of first-year students. Many students with significant symptoms of mental distress are not in treatment. We provide recommendations for students and faculty on ways to improve student work conditions, productivity, and mental health.
bbb_mentalhealth_paper.pdf bbb_mentalhealth_executive_summary.pdf student_survey.pdf faculty_survey.pdf Bolotnyy V, Bratu C.
The Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants and the Native-Born: Evidence from Sweden. Working Paper.
AbstractWe use administrative Swedish data to show that, conditional on parent income, immigrant children have similar incomes and higher educational attainment in adulthood than native-born Swedes. This result, however, masks the fact that immigrant children born into poor families are more likely than similar natives to both reach the top of the income distribution and to stay at the bottom. Immigrant children from high-income families are also more likely than natives to regress to the economic bottom. Notably, however, children from predominantly-refugee sending countries like Bosnia, Syria, and Iran have higher intergenerational mobility than the average immigrant child in Sweden.
bolotnyy_bratu_igm.pdf Bolotnyy V, Vasserman S.
Scaling Auctions as Insurance: A Case Study in Infrastructure Procurement. Working Paper.
AbstractMost U.S. government spending on highways and bridges is done through “scaling” procurement auctions, in which private construction firms submit unit price bids for each piece of material required to complete a project. Using data on bridge maintenance projects undertaken by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), we present evidence that firm bidding behavior in this context is consistent with optimal skewing under risk aversion: firms limit their risk exposure by placing lower unit bids on items with greater uncertainty. We estimate bidders’ risk aversion, the risk in each auction, and the distribution of bidders’ private costs. Simulating equilibrium item-level bids under counterfactual settings, we estimate the fraction of project spending that is due to risk and evaluate auction mechanisms under consideration by policymakers. We find that scaling auctions provide substantial savings relative to lump sum auctions and show how our framework can be used to evaluate alternative auction designs.
bv_scalingauctions.pdf