Calendrier du 10 novembre 2021
Development Economics Seminar
Du 10/11/2021 de 16:30 à 18:00
Salle R1.09, Campus Jourdan
DELFINO Alexia (Bocconi University)
Breaking Gender Barriers: Experimental Evidence on Men in Pink-Collar Jobs
Traditionally female-dominated sectors are growing and male-dominated ones shrinking, yet sectorial male shares are not changing. Why? I embed a field experiment within the UK national recruitment program for social workers to analyze barriers to men’s entry and the nature of men’s sorting into female-dominated occupations. I modify the content of recruitment messages to potential applicants to exogenously vary two key drivers of selection: perceived gender shares and expectations of returns to talent. I find that perceived gender shares do not affect men’s applications, while increasing expected returns to talent encourages men to apply and improves the average quality of the applicants. This enables the employer to hire more talented men, who consistently perform better on the job and are not more likely to leave vis-á-vis men with lower expected returns to talent. I conclude by showing that there is no trade-off between men’s entry and women’s exit among talented applicants, both at hiring and on-the-job, and thus the net impact of raising expected returns to talent for the employer is positive.
Economic History Seminar
Du 10/11/2021 de 12:00 à 13:30
Salle R1.14, Campus Jourdan
HAY Mark (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Napoleon, Amsterdam, and the Reconstruction of the European Financial Economy, 1803-1818
Despite being the wealthiest state in Europe, eighteenth France stands out from the common flow of European history for lacking the financial, fiscal and monetary infrastructure to mobilise the resources needed to pursue her geopolitical ambitions. It was not until the strains of military occupation and the heavy indemnities imposed on her after the second defeat of Napoleon that France developed the infrastructure needed to mobilise the resources to finance her international obligations.
The speed of the development of post-Waterloo French financial, fiscal, and monetary regime continues to puzzle historians. Two explanations have been put forward. First, London financiers, most notably Baring and Rothschild, are seen as laying the foundation of the French financial-fiscal system through structuring the first major loan floatations in France, setting the example for French financiers to emulate. The second explanation sees the origins in what Pierre-Cyrille Hautcoeur refers to as La coulisse – the grassroots informal capital network that emerged after the bursting of the Mississippi Bubble in 1719-1720. Both explanations hold true, but they fail to account for how French grassroots financial networks and international high finance linked up.
This paper argues that the missing link is to be found in Amsterdam. Amsterdam is often overlooked in the history of French public finance, but in fact it was the epicentre of the French financial system in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era. After the British severed Dutch commercial routes, the Amsterdam mercantile and financial elite searched desperately for new markets. They were quick to find a new role as bankers to Napoleon, employing their financial and commercial networks to remit plundered wealth, war subsidies and indemnities from across Europe to Paris. In doing so, they not only drew French capitalist closer into their European networks, they also infused the French system with the one element it lacked in order to consolidate, trust.
This paper examines the Dutch roots of the post-1815 capital market through the financial transaction that can be understood as the starting point for the convergence of Amsterdam financial interest and Napoleonic geopolitical ambitions, the sale of the Louisiana Territory.
Bio:
Mark read history in Amsterdam, Paris and Oxford. His doctoral research at King’s College London explored Dutch financial diplomacy in 1780-1815. Currently, Mark is Assistant Professor in History at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is writing up a monograph for Palgrave on the financing of the sale and purchase of the Louisiana Territory. His broader research explores Napoleon war financing and the consequences thereof for the financial economies of Europe.