Carla Srebot

Econ PhD Candidate at UBC

Working papers

  • Managers and the Cultural Transmission of Gender Norms
    With Virginia Minni, Kieu-Trang Nguyen, and Heather Sarsons

    Abstract.- This paper examines the influence of managers from countries with different gender norms on workplace culture and gender disparities within organizations. Using data from a multinational firm operating in over 100 countries, we exploit crosscountry manager rotations that are orthogonal to workers to estimate the impact of male managers’ gender norms on the work outcomes of male and female workers within the same team. Managers from countries with one standard deviation more progressive gender attitudes narrow the gender pay gap by 5 percentage points (18%), primarily by promoting women at higher rates. The effects last beyond the manager’s rotation and are concentrated in countries with more conservative gender attitudes. Moreover, local managers in the destination office change their own attitudes, as evidenced by those managers in turn being more gender-equal with their subordinates. Our evidence points to individual managers as critical in shaping corporate culture.

  • Labor Market Flexibility and Gender Heterogeneity in Labor Allocation
    [Draft available upon request]

    Abstract.- Does greater flexibility create job opportunities and improve labor allocation? This paper examines how firms and workers respond to a labor market flexibility shock in a setting characterized by high regulation costs. Focusing on the Brazilian labor market, I leverage linked formal employer-employee data to analyze the impacts of the 2017 Labor Reform, a policy that removed constraints on flexible work schedules. I show that this policy change led to an increase in job opportunities and employment, especially in part-time positions. Notably, women experienced greater employment gains. At the state level, I observe that while the reform did not significantly impact unemployment rates, it contributed to reduce informality, which accounted for 40% of the workforce in 2016. Gender-specific analysis indicates that this effect is primarily driven by women transitioning from informal to formal employment within the private sector in the short run, followed by both women and men in the state-level economy in the medium run. These findings underscore the interaction between labor market flexibility and gender disparities, underscoring the potential of such reforms to reconfigure employment allocation. The case of the Brazilian reform offers a more nuanced perspective when informality is considered.

Selected Work in Progress

  • Disempowered Unions, Collective Bargaining, and Wage Inequality
    With Pascuel Plotkin

  • Can Property Rights Foster Individualism?
    With Sara Benetti and Christian Maruthiah

    Abstract.- Individualism has been shown to have important economic, social and political consequences. This project examines whether individualism can be fostered by government policy, the degree to which it persists across generations, and its long-run implications for local economic development. We study these questions in the context of an ambitious land allotment programme targeting Native Americans in the early-20th century, using a range of historical and contemporary data sources. At the individual-level, we examine the effects of allotment on naming practices, intermarriage, participation in Native American civil rights associations, and location choice among descendants up to 100 years later. In order to document the long-term political and social consequences of allotment at the reservation-level, we construct new datasets on public goods provision, the occurence of and issues raised in local public meetings, and the content of modern tribal constitutions.

Publications