This week in research #15

Here's what caught my eye in research over the past week:

• May, McGarvey, and Toshmatova (open access) identify gender differences in US graduate students' views on the professional climate in economics, focusing on stress and work/life balance, disciplinary climate in the profession, departmental climate, and the prevalence of sexual harassment
• Blake, Thomas, and Hess (with ungated earlier version here) find that making recreational marijuana legal at the state level increases applications to the three largest state public schools, which received on average a 54% increase in applications (but this should be considered alongside a negative impact on student performance)
• Gershenson, Holt, and Tyner (with ungated earlier version here) find that high teacher grading standards increase both contemporaneous student achievement in first-year algebra and performance in subsequent math classes (so grade inflation is likely actively harming students)
• Carpenter et al. (open access) find that payday lenders don't protect regional economies, and in fact reduce the dynamism of the economy be reducing entry and exit of firms
• Preston and Wright (open access) find that the gender gap in financial literacy begins well before adulthood in Australia (although I'm a little disappointed they didn't cite my work here, with ungated earlier version here)
• Gulek (with ungated earlier version here) finds that driving while fasting (during Ramadan) at rush hour is associated with a 25% increase in the probability of having a traffic accident (timely, with Ramadan happening right now)
• Ragni, Ippolito, and Masci find, for engineering students in Milan, a subtle rise in earned credits and a slight decrease in grade point averages for those exposed to hybrid teaching (not too dissimilar from earlier results - see this post and all the links at the end of it)
• Bertacchini, Revelli, and Zotti (open access) find that UNESCO world heritage listing has a significant impact on income and property prices in urban areas of Italy
• Houseworth and Fisher find a raw interracial marriage wage penalty for White male spouses and a raw interracial marriage wage premium for Black male spouses, with a larger penalty for White males and a smaller premium for Black males in states that were forced to allow interracial marriage by the US Supreme Court
• Fischer (open access) finds that when gasoline alcohol sales were prohibited at gas stations in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, gasoline margins dropped by 5%
• Lin, Liu, and Zhou find using a gravity model of trade that COVID-19 led countries to trade more with countries they were geographically closer to
• Tandon uses data from Yemen to show that large policy changes or shocks cause individuals to change how they answer subjective wellbeing (life satisfaction, or happiness) questions in ways that have little to do with changes in objective wellbeing measures (not surprising, but another challenge to happiness data)
• Anaya and Zamarro (with ungated earlier version here) find that the gender gap in PISA test scores may be underestimated, because boys put less effort into the test than girls (which is related to this as well)

A final reminder that I am giving a Professorial Lecture at the University of Waikato next Tuesday (26 March), titled Beyond the Buzz: The Sobering Economics of Alcohol. There are still tickets available, and you can register here. There's no livestream, but the event will be recorded and available sometime afterwards.