03 - Social Signaling Busztyn et al. (2017)

Question 1

motivation

Answer 1

• many men still prefer women as wives that are professionals not as ambitious
• hence if single women are looking for potential partners, they need to signal lower ambition; which usually comes at a professional cost

Question 2

motivation for field experiment in business school

Answer 2

• an MBA program is a marriage market institution
• huge fraction of female MBAs do not work post completion of the MBA

Question 3

experiment design (first experiment)

Answer 3

students fill out questionnaire by career office that helps business school in arranging for summer internships. Questions include: which industry, how willing to travel, work how many hours per week, desired compensation, etc.

Question 4

treatment (first experiment)

Answer 4

“the information will be shared with you career advisor and your/anonymized answers will be discussed during the career class”

Question 5

results (first experiment)

Answer 5

• when single women expected their classmates to see their answers, the portrayed themselves much less favorably to the labor market (e.g. reporting they would be willing to travel seven fewer days per month)
• neither non single-women nor men regardless of their relationship status, changed their answers when they expected their peers to observe their choices

Question 6

placebo question to assess the alternative interpretation that single women are simply more humble in public

Answer 6

• question on self-reported writing ability
• writing skills are valued in the labor market, but not sanctioned in the marriage market

Question 7

placebo question results

Answer 7

single women rated their writing skills equally in the public and private treatments

Question 8

idea (supplementary experiment)

Answer 8

if this was about marriage market signaling, then effects should be more pronounced with male audience

Question 9

experiment design (supplementary experiment)

Answer 9

during a career class, students were asked to make choices over three pairs of hypothetical jobs. the groups randomly differ in fraction of men and women.

Question 10

results (supplementary experiment)

Answer 10

salary > working hours

all-female: 68%
male peers: 42%

promotion > travel

all-female: 79%
male peers: 42%

social impact > co-workers
all-female: 42%
male peers: 43%