Can female role models bring more women into economics?

The challenge

Women remain underrepresented in economics, both in university classrooms and across the profession. This gap may begin before students choose a degree, as they form views about what economists study, how the discipline serves society, and who can succeed in it.

The project examines whether education choices are shaped by incomplete or biased beliefs about economics and by low confidence in one's own quantitative ability. Understanding these mechanisms can inform strategies that broaden students' options without prescribing a particular field of study.

What we want to learn

The evaluation asks whether contact with female economists who serve as relatable role models changes students' beliefs about the discipline, their aspirations, and their confidence in using quantitative tools.

It also examines whether those changes persist and translate into an observable choice: applying to an economics program during the 2026 admissions cycle.

The intervention

Trained female economists deliver a 45–60 minute in-person interactive session during the Proyecto de Vida course. The session combines personal experience, videos, guided reflection, and concrete information about what economics does and how it can help address social problems.

The intervention provides credible, relatable information at a consequential point in the degree-choice process. It does not prescribe a single choice; instead, it helps students assess economics with a fuller picture of the discipline and of their own abilities.

How the project will be evaluated

The study is being conducted in 29 high schools: 24 from Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León and 5 from Tecnológico de Monterrey. Fourteen schools were assigned to treatment and fifteen to the comparison group.

Within each treatment school, six classrooms are selected. Three receive the session and three remain untreated, allowing the study to estimate the direct effect of participation and explore whether information also reaches other classrooms in the same school.

• School assignment is stratified by university network and rerandomized to improve balance in gender composition, GPA, and baseline beliefs.
• The field component includes 174 classrooms and 5,220 students; a subsample of 200 students will also participate in laboratory tasks.

What the study will measure

The primary outcome is a real education choice: whether each student applies to economics during the 2026 admissions cycle. This information will come from administrative records, allowing the study to go beyond stated intentions.

Surveys are administered before the session, immediately afterward, and again eight to ten weeks later. This sequence will distinguish immediate reactions from more persistent changes in perceptions and aspirations.

• Intentions and aspirations.
• Beliefs about economics.
• Identity and quantitative confidence.
• Stereotypes and perceived barriers.

An analysis defined before observing the results

The project has a pre-analysis plan and a public record in the AEA RCT Registry. Defining the main hypotheses, outcomes, and analytical decisions before seeing the data helps distinguish confirmatory analysis from subsequent exploration.

The analysis follows the intention-to-treat principle. It uses ANCOVA for survey outcomes, difference-in-differences to compare 2025 and 2026 applications, and standard errors clustered at the school level.

Research team

The research team includes Stanislao Maldonado, Edgar Castro, Elvira Naranjo, and Joana Chapa. Tecnológico de Monterrey and Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León are the partner institutions, with funding from the International Economic Association.

This page summarizes the project's pre-analysis plan and public AEA registration. Technical details follow the current registry record; results are not yet available. AEA registration ↗

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