Gender Gaps Conference 2026

Men and women differ in their capability to reach different goals, whether in the labor market or in the household. Disparities in the probability of 'success' persist despite decades of efforts to eradicate them. Understanding these gaps requires looking not only at labor market outcomes, but also at how families form and allocate roles, how stereotypes are transmitted, and how social perceptions of ability steer educational and occupational choices from an early age.

We invite papers studying gender inequality from the fields of economics, management, sociology, and social psychology. Research at the intersection of professional aspirations, household roles, and bargaining power is especially welcomed. The conference is open to empirical quantitative work, experimental studies as well as qualitative work. Empirical and experimental papers with strong theoretical foundations will be considered a priority, but studies advancing econometric and statistical tools measuring gender inequality as well as specific case studies are cordially invited as well. We invite papers on a broad range of issues, including but not limited to:

• evidence from field, laboratory and natural experiments;
• econometrics of estimating the gender gaps;
• determinants of gender gaps, such as labor market and other institutions, demographic processes, cultural changes and structural change;
• gender norms, stereotypes, and their role in occupational and educational sorting, including underrepresentation in STEM fields
• household division of labor, gender role attitudes, and their implications for labor supply and intra-household inequality;
• country, sector, occupational, regional as well as comparative studies;
• theoretical approaches to gender gaps in employment, wages, and other outcomes.

We aim to create a forum where scholars interested in the analysis of gender gaps in the labor market can present and discuss theoretical, empirical and policy-related research. The format of the conference accommodates for engaging communication about the invited papers: we plan approximately 30 minutes for a presentation and each paper will be assigned a discussant. We plan for plenary sessions, but in the case of many high quality papers submitted to the conference, we will organize additional poster sessions with ample space for discussion in a friendly atmosphere.

The keynote speakers are Cheti Nicoletti and Thomas Breda

Cheti Nicoletti is Professor of Economics and Deputy Head of Department for Research at the University of York, where she is the Leader of the Applied Micro-Econometrics Cluster (AME). She is also an active member of the Women’s Committee of the Royal Economic Society. Her work lies at the intersection of applied micro‑econometrics, child development, education, gender economics, and social networks, with a strong focus on causal inference using longitudinal and administrative data. S Her research was published in leading journals such as the Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Econometrics, Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, and Journal of Applied Econometrics, among others.

Thomas Breda is Associate Professor in Economics at the Paris School of Economics, a  Senior Researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and Senior Economist at the Institut de politiques publiques. His work lies at the intersection of labor economics, gender inequality, and education. His research  explores causal mechanisms behind gender gaps in education and labor markets. He published in many leading journals such as Nature, The Review of Economic Studies, Science Advances, PNAS, AEJ: Applied economics, and the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.