Overview
Marianne Bertrand is a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and NBER research associate. She works on labor economics, discrimination, gender gaps, and econometric methods. Her methodological work established the standard for inference in multi-period DiD regressions.
Key Contributions / Features
- Serial correlation in DiD (Bertrand, Duflo, and Mullainathan 2003): Demonstrated that OLS DiD standard errors are severely biased downward due to serial correlation; 44–67% false-rejection rate on placebo laws; established group-level clustering as the standard fix.
- Racial discrimination in hiring (Bertrand and Mullainathan 2004, AER): Sent 5,000 resumes with randomly assigned White- and Black-sounding names to employers; White names received 50% more callbacks per resume — direct audit evidence of racial discrimination in labor markets.
- Gender and work-family trade-offs: Research on gender gaps in corporate leadership, MBA career divergence, and the role of flexibility in wage gaps.
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