Aukje Nieuwenhuis wins Jan Brouwer Thesis Award
The Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) is proud to announce that Aukje Nieuwenhuis has won the Jan Brouwer Thesis Award in the category “Economics”. Each year the Royal Holland Society for Sciences and Humanities (Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen, KHMW) awards the best Master’s Theses in eight categories of Humanities and Social Sciences. Nieuwenhuis received the award for her master’s thesis titled “Gender-stereotypical labor market behavior across generations: evidence from conditional second moments.”
Last year, Nieuwenhuis graduated from the Research Master in Economics and Business with the profile Econometrics and Business Analytics. Her thesis was supervised by associate professor Agnieszka Postepska and professor Rob Alessie. Currently, she is a PhD candidate at FEB’s department of Economics, Econometrics and Finance (EEF), also under the supervision of Postepska and Alessie.
Gender-stereotypical behavior and children’s career choices
The main objective of Nieuwenhuis’ master's thesis is to isolate the causal effect of parental gender-stereotypical behavior on children’s career choices from the effect of selection. There is evidence of positive inter-generational correlation in gender-stereotypical labor market behavior and this is associated with persistent employment gender gaps. Two explanations for the observed inter-generational correlation are selection and causality. A causal relationship implies that holding gender-stereotypical jobs affects parenting in a way that influences children’s choices and leads to more or less gender-stereotypical behavior. A selection effect, on the other hand, captures unobserved transfers from parents to children: parents who express gender-stereotypical behavior have children who display similar behavior, regardless of parental choices.
Using data from Germany, Nieuwenhuis estimates the causal and selection effect. Her results suggest that selection drives the observed positive correlation in gender-stereotypical behavior of parents and daughters, while causality operates in the other direction. This suggests that the factor responsible for the persistent polarization in the labor market is the unobserved transfer that accounts for, among other things, gender norms. The outcome is important for policymakers, as policies aimed at balanced occupational gender compositions may not induce the desired spillovers if gender norms remain unchanged.
Motivational boost
Nieuwenhuis received the award, along with a cash prize of € 2000, at KHMW’s headquarters in the Hodshon House in Haarlem. “It is a huge honour that my master's thesis was awarded with the Jan Brouwer Thesis Award and I am grateful to my supervisors Agnieszka and Rob for their invaluable support. This is a great motivational boost and I am excited to continue working on the topic during my PhD.”
Last modified: | 20 June 2023 3.20 p.m. |
More news
-
19 April 2024
New thesis prize for master's students of Economics and Business
How can we encourage economics and business students to deal with important societal challenges in their master's thesis? The 14 Dutch faculties of economics and business, united in the Council of Deans in Economics and Business (DEB), have set up...
-
18 April 2024
Ward Romeijnders appointed as Professor of Optimization under Uncertainty
The Faculty of Economics and Business is pleased to announce that Ward Romeijnders has been appointed as Professor of Optimization under Uncertainty. The chair is situated within the Department of Operations.
-
12 April 2024
Inaugural Lecture Corine Noordhoff: Future ready retail
In her inaugural lecture, Professor of Retail Marketing Corine Noordhoff will provide insights in the cornerstones for survival and adaptation in the retail sector. Noordhoff’s inaugural lecture will take place on Friday 19 April 2024, 16:15 –...