Jamin D Speer
Biographic Data
| ID | 1027532 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jamin D Speer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jamin D |
| FAMILY NAME | Speer |
| SIGNATURE | SPEER J D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Memphis |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5477-3779 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 7 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Opening the black box of college major choice
Are Soft Skills Enough? Experimental Evidence on Skill Complementarity for College Graduates
The authors study how complementarities in skill may affect the returns to vocational training using a randomized controlled trial in Cairo, Egypt. Participants, who were college-educated, were given either a four-week training in soft skills (e.g., grooming, time management), technical skills (e.g., Microsoft programs, English language), or a mix of the two (half of each). Findings show large differences in outcomes between the three treatments.…
Discrimination against Women in Hiring
We study discrimination in hiring and its associated outcomes for the discriminators using a unique survey of Egyptian businesses. Discrimination against women is widespread and overt: about half (51%) of establishments directly admit that they prefer to hire men. The share varies widely across industries, from 60% in retail to only 16% in IT. Using a list randomization technique, we can rule out that discrimination against women is heavily stigm…
Stigma and take‐up of labour market assistance
Aversion to ‘stigma’—disutility associated with a programme or activity due to beliefs about how it is perceived—may affect labour market choices and utilization of social programmes, but empirical evidence of its importance is scarce. Using two randomized field experiments, we show that stigma can affect consequential labour market decisions. Treatments designed to alleviate stigma concerns about taking entry‐level jobs—such as how those jobs ar…
Bye bye Ms. American Sci
Where the girls are
The nursing major, at almost 90% female, has one of the largest gender gaps of any US college major. In trying to explain this gap, I sort through candidate explanations and show that nursing is an outlier on many dimensions. Relative to other majors, it has some of the slowest earnings growth, by far the highest occupational concentration, among the lowest penalties for part‐time work, among the lowest unemployment rates, and the highest level o…
Cashier or Consultant? Entry Labor Market Conditions, Field of Study, and Career Success
We measure impacts of entry conditions on labor market outcomes for the US college graduating classes of 1974–2011. A large recession reduces initial earnings by 10%, through full-time work and wages, with small persistent impacts on wages. Those in high-paying majors experience smaller impacts on most labor market outcomes, widening earnings inequality across majors. In the Great Recession, early earnings losses are much larger than predicted gi…
Discrimination against Women in Hiring
We study discrimination in hiring and its associated outcomes for the discriminators using a unique survey of Egyptian businesses. Discrimination against women is widespread and overt: about half (51%) of establishments directly admit that they prefer to hire men. The share varies widely across industries, from 60% in retail to only 16% in IT. Using a list randomization technique, we can rule out that discrimination against women is heavily stigm…
Stigma and take‐up of labour market assistance
Aversion to ‘stigma’—disutility associated with a programme or activity due to beliefs about how it is perceived—may affect labour market choices and utilization of social programmes, but empirical evidence of its importance is scarce. Using two randomized field experiments, we show that stigma can affect consequential labour market decisions. Treatments designed to alleviate stigma concerns about taking entry‐level jobs—such as how those jobs ar…
Cashier or Consultant? Entry Labor Market Conditions, Field of Study, and Career Success
We measure impacts of entry conditions on labor market outcomes for the US college graduating classes of 1974–2011. A large recession reduces initial earnings by 10%, through full-time work and wages, with small persistent impacts on wages. Those in high-paying majors experience smaller impacts on most labor market outcomes, widening earnings inequality across majors. In the Great Recession, early earnings losses are much larger than predicted gi…
Where the girls are
The nursing major, at almost 90% female, has one of the largest gender gaps of any US college major. In trying to explain this gap, I sort through candidate explanations and show that nursing is an outlier on many dimensions. Relative to other majors, it has some of the slowest earnings growth, by far the highest occupational concentration, among the lowest penalties for part‐time work, among the lowest unemployment rates, and the highest level o…
Bye bye Ms. American Sci
Stigma and take‐up of labour market assistance
Aversion to ‘stigma’—disutility associated with a programme or activity due to beliefs about how it is perceived—may affect labour market choices and utilization of social programmes, but empirical evidence of its importance is scarce. Using two randomized field experiments, we show that stigma can affect consequential labour market decisions. Treatments designed to alleviate stigma concerns about taking entry‐level jobs—such as how those jobs ar…
Opening the black box of college major choice
Are Soft Skills Enough? Experimental Evidence on Skill Complementarity for College Graduates
The authors study how complementarities in skill may affect the returns to vocational training using a randomized controlled trial in Cairo, Egypt. Participants, who were college-educated, were given either a four-week training in soft skills (e.g., grooming, time management), technical skills (e.g., Microsoft programs, English language), or a mix of the two (half of each). Findings show large differences in outcomes between the three treatments.…
Discrimination against Women in Hiring
We study discrimination in hiring and its associated outcomes for the discriminators using a unique survey of Egyptian businesses. Discrimination against women is widespread and overt: about half (51%) of establishments directly admit that they prefer to hire men. The share varies widely across industries, from 60% in retail to only 16% in IT. Using a list randomization technique, we can rule out that discrimination against women is heavily stigm…
Demographic economics (4 works) · Economics (4 works) · Labour economics (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Labor market dynamics and wage inequality (3 works) · Computer Science (2 works) · Earnings (2 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (2 works) · Higher Education Research Studies (2 works) · Political science (2 works)