Xiaoyue Shan

Xiaoyue Shan
  • Postdoc Researcher

Contact Information

  • office Address:

    3733 Spruce Street, 3rd Floor
    Philadelphia PA 19104

Research Interests: Labor Economics, Behavioral Economics, Experimental Economics, Applied Microeconomics

Links: Personal Website

Overview

I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. I received my PhD in Economics from the University of Zurich in 2021.

In my research, I use field and lab experiments to study topics related to biases, disparities, and skills. A central theme of my research is to investigate how identity and status in social context shape individual decision making, skill accumulation, and educational or labor market outcomes.

Fields: labor economics, behavioral & experimental economics, gender economics, development economics, and applied microeconomics.

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Research

 

  • Christine Exley, Raymond Fisman, Judd B. Kessler, Louis-Pierre Lepage, Xiaomeng Li, Corinne Low, Xiaoyue Shan, Mattie Toma, Basit Zafar (Working), Information-Optional Policies and the Gender Concealment Gap. 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.

  • Judd B. Kessler, Corinne Low, Xiaoyue Shan (2024), Lowering the Playing Field: Discrimination through Sequential Spillover Effects, The Review of Economics and Statistics, 00 (), pp. 1-28. Abstract
    We document a new way that discrimination operates: through sequential spillover effects. Employers in an incentivized resume rating experiment evaluate a sequence of hypothetical candidates with randomly assigned characteristics. Candidates are rated worse when following white men than when following women or minorities. Exploring the mechanisms, we find that spillover effects are inversely related to direct bias. When reviewing high-quality resumes or recruiting in STEM industries, employers directly favor white men and display no spillover effect. For low-quality resumes or non-STEM industries, we find no direct bias but a strong spillover effect. Results suggest that discrimination arises in subtle ways.

Teaching