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The IAB Special Lecture Series 2023 / 2024 / 2025 / 2026

hosted by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in collaboration with the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU)


CONTENT

The IAB Special Lecture Series invites outstanding international researchers across the Social Sciences to present their current work. Guest lecturers are selected on exellent academic merit and typically have made significant contributions to their respective fields and continue to actively shape internationale research agendas. The IAB Special Lecture Series aims to provide a unique opportunity to the IAB researchers as well as researchers from other research entities to discurss the work and share their expertise with the speaker during the presentation, and to receive feedback on their own research projects during individual talks with the speaker.


CONFERENCE FORMAT

The IAB Special Lecture Series will be held at the IAB, Regensburger Str. 100, 90478 Nuremberg.


ABSTRACTS OF THE SPECIAL LECTURE SERIES 2026


» 05 March 2026 - Barbara Petrongolo

Bio: Barbara Petrongolo is a Professor of Economics at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow at Nuffield College. She is Fellow of the British Academy and Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance of the London School of Economics. She previously held positions at Queen Mary University of London, the London School of Economics, the Paris School of Economics and the University of Carlos III (Madrid). Her primary research interests are in labour economics. She has worked extensively on the performance of labour markets with job search frictions, with applications to unemployment dynamics, welfare policy and interdependencies across local labour markets. Her work also researches the causes of gender inequalities in labour market outcomes, with emphasis on the role of employment selection mechanisms, structural transformation, household interactions and gender norms.




Title: The evolution of gender in the labour market: Inequality, (in)efficiency and stereotypes

Abstract: Gender inequality is rife. Women make systematically different education choices from men, are under-represented in high-earning careers, and bear the bulk of the earning penalty from parenthood. Moreover, the disproportionate role women play in unpaid work in the home more than offsets the gap in paid work in the labor market, resulting in less leisure time and possibly lower life satisfaction. Are women held back in the labour market because they are less willing to engage in competitive careers and/or they especially value caring for their children? In fact, research has shown that men and women are on average similar in their preferences and attitudes but face different career-family trade-offs. Besides valid arguments of social justice, differential entry barriers into certain professions raise obvious questions about the efficient allocation of women’s talent. While it would be tempting to conclude that family-friendly workplaces could provide a solution to women’s quest for the desired work life balance, there is a risk that this solution may further entrench gender segregation across firms and professions. Conversely, research has established that, if women’s involvement in the labour market is shaped by prevailing gender norms (actual or perceived) around their primary role in raising children, progress towards gender equality requires redressing gender stereotypes via policy, education, and information interventions.


LOCAL ORGANIZERS

  • Yuliya Kosyakova
  • Theresa Koch
  • Martin Friedrich
  • Tim Kovalenko
  • Jonathan Latner
  • André Diegmann


PREVIOUS SPEAKERS AT THE SPECIAL LECTURE SERIES


FURTHER INFORMATION:

For any questions refer to IAB.Special-Lecture@iab.de


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