I Isaksson

I am a fifth-year PhD student in Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics and a Research Fellow at the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School. The focus of my dissertation is to examine how gender differences in every day decision-making translate into economic inequalities. I will receive my PhD and be on the job market in 2018.

My job market paper "It Takes Two: Gender Differences in Group Work” focuses on the role of gender in team work. A primary motivation for this study is that experimental research is typically conducted on the individual level, but professional life often happens in groups. How women value their individual contributions in a group setting may have a large impact on their working life, since individual contributions to group success are not transparent. If women systematically undervalue their contribution, this could lead to lower lifetime labor market outcomes.

This study also examines other related topics. It provides evidence on how gender composition affects team performance. In addition, it studies how men view the contribution of their female counterparts: are men less likely to trust the quality of their female team members’ work? Does this affect the success of the group? 

I hold an M.Sc from the Stockholm School of Economics and a B.Sc. from Humboldt University of Berlin.

Publications

Camerer CF, Dreber A, Forsell E, Ho TH, Huber J, Johannesson M, Kirchler M, Almenberg J, Altmejd A, Chan T, Heikensten E, Holzmeister F, Imai T, Isaksson S, Nave G, Pfeiffer T, Razen M, Wu H. “Evaluating replicability of laboratory experiments in economics.” Science.

Dreber, Anna, Thomas Pfeiffer, Johan Almenberg, Siri Isaksson, Brad Wilson, Yiling Chen, Brian A. Nosek & Magnus Johannesson (in press). “Using Prediction Markets to Estimate the Reproducibility of Scientific Research”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Work in Progress:

“It Takes Two: Gender differences in in group work.” [JOB MARKET PAPER]

“In favor of girls: A field study of adults'' beliefs in children''s ability.” (with Emma Heikensten). 

Abstract:  Asking for advice is a crucial way of getting ahead both professionally and privately. Good guidance can be highly beneficial while taking bad advice can be detrimental. Who we turn to and trust for help is therefore an important economic decision. Yet research on this topic is scarce. In this paper we ask whether adults (N=123) engage in gender discrimination when seeking advice from children (N=38). To answer this question, we collect data from five seasons of the Swedish Game Show "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" where adult contestants choose a boy or a girl from 5th grade to help them earn large amounts of money by answering questions from the primary school curriculum. The children are experts while contestants often struggle to find the right answer. Thus, adults are highly dependent on choosing the right advisor in this context. The decisions studied in this paper are therefore made in a natural setting where stakes are high. We find that girls are favored over boys. This result is robust to a full set of controls including ability of contestants and children. The favoritism is not rational since boys and girls are equally able and contestants are made aware of this fact. We argue that stereotype based gender discrimination might be driving our result.

“Simon Says: Examining gender differences in advice seeking and influence in the lab.” (with Emma Heikensten). 

“Gender differences in revenge and strategic play: a natural experiment.” (withSirus Dehdariand Emma Heikensten).

“Social Sciences Replication Project.”(with Colin Camerer, Anna Dreber, Magnus Johannesson and others).

Upcoming Talks:

I will present “It Takes Two: Gender differences in in group work.” at the 2017 ESA North America meeting in Richmond VA on October 21st, please see the program.

Teaching Experience

Microeconomics II (PhD) - Fall 2015

International Economics (Undergraduate) - Fall 2014 

Introduction to LaTeX (at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin) - Fall 2010