We are excited to kick off the 2025 instalment of the Stone Inequality seminar series with Mattie Toma, an Associate Professor in the Behavioural Science Group at the University of Warwick. Toma will present her paper titled, “Information-Optional Policies and the Gender Concealment Gap.” This study examines gender differences in grade concealment policies, revealing that women are less likely than men to hide lower grades, leading to disparities in GPA benefits and highlighting underlying perceptions of bias.
Abstract
We analyze data from two universities that allowed students to replace a letter grade with “credit” on their transcript. At both schools, we observe a significant and substantial gender concealment gap: women are less likely than men to conceal grades, particularly grades that would harm their GPA. This gender concealment gap produces differential GPA gains from the policy with men benefiting nearly 50% more than women. Additional complementary data, including surveys and experiments with students and employers, suggest why women may conceal less: women may expect observers to have more negative inferences about their concealed grades.
Event Details
Date: January 7, 2025
Time: 3:30 – 5:00 PM
Location: Iona 533, 6000 Iona Dr, Vancouver, BC
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Mattie Toma is an Associate Professor in the Behavioural Science Group at the University of Warwick. Her research uses tools from behavioral and experimental economics to address policy-relevant questions, in particular policymaker decision-making and identifying effective global health interventions. She is also a Senior Research Affiliate at the Global Priorities Institute at the University of Oxford, an Academic Affiliate at the Office of Evaluation Sciences in the U.S. government, and an Invited Researcher at J-PAL. Mattie received her PhD from Harvard University in 2022.