Overview

In the 1950s, few economists thought of phenomena such as racial discrimination as under their purview. That changed in 1957, when Gary S. Becker, Professor of Economics and of Sociology at the University of Chicago and at Chicago Booth before his death in 2014, published The Economics of Discrimination, a book based on his 1955 PhD thesis. During this 10-week reading group both classical and new evidence on discrimination, mostly gender discrimination in labor markets, will be presented and discussed. We intend to review and explore the role of firms and occupations, norms and stereotypes, family demographics and institutions in driving discrimination, seeking ways which alleviates minorities. Both theories and recent empirical findings on discrimination will be reviewed. We also intend to review empirical works related to gender gap in the labor market of Iran.