Hersch Writes on Sexual Harassment for CSWEP

May 19, 2009

Learn what constitutes sexual harassment and what you can do about it if you are experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace. Read Professor Hersch's article for the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP) newsletter, "Sexual Harassment."

Hersch on SSRN

Professor Joni Hersch is a leading contributor to the Vanderbilt Law & Economics Working Paper Series on SSRN. New additions include:

• Immigrant Status and the Value of Statistical Life, with W. Kip Viscusi
• Punitive Damages by Numbers: Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker, with W. Kip Viscusi
• Skin Color Discrimination and Immigrant Pay
• Home Production and Wages: Evidence from the American Time Use Survey
• Skin Color, Immigrant Wages, and Discrimination

Hersch now Associate Editor of REHO

April 13, 2009

Professor Hersch is now an Associate Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Review of Economics of the Household.

Hersch on Nashville Public Radio

April 10, 2009

Professor Hersch was interviewed by Nashville Public Radio's Rachel Allen regarding her work on the effect of home production on wages.

Hersch in The Boston Globe

June 15, 2008

Professor Hersch's paper "Double Your Major, Double Your Return?" coauthored with Alison Del Rossi and forthcoming in the Economics of Education Review, is cited in the Ideas section of The Boston Globe.

The Vanderbilt Lawyer features the Ph.D. Program in Law and Economics

November 1, 2007

The Vanderbilt Lawyer alumni publication (Vol. 36, No. 1) features the official launch of the Ph.D. Program in Law and Economics as well as Co-directors W. Kip Viscusi and Joni Hersch and the program's first class of students.

Study by economist Joni Hersch reveals that lighter and taller equals a bigger paycheck for immigrants

January 25, 2007

A new study by Vanderbilt University Professor of Law and Economics Joni Hersch found legal immigrants in the United States with a lighter skin tone made more money than those with darker skin.

Professor Hersch used data from 2,084 men and women who participated in the 2003 New Immigrant Survey. An interviewer reported the person’s skin color using an 11-point scale where 0 represented the absence of color and 10 represented the darkest possible skin color.

Even when taking into consideration characteristics that might affect wages, such as English language proficiency, work experience and education, Professor Hersch found immigrants with the lightest skin color earned, on average, 8 percent to 15 percent more than immigrants with the darkest skin tone. She said the effect of skin color even persisted among workers with the same ethnicity, race and country of origin.

Professor Hersch’s research also found height played a part in salary. Taller immigrants earned more, with every inch adding an additional 1 percent to wages.

Professor Hersch considered various explanations for skin color’s effect on wages, such as discrimination in country of birth, the possibility that darker skin color is caused by outdoor work, which is lower paying, and interviewer bias. After ruling out those explanations, she concluded that discrimination is the strongest explanation for why lighter and taller immigrants make more money.

"I was surprised and dismayed at how strong and persistent the skin color effect was even after I considered a whole series of alternative interpretations and explanations," she said.

Professor Hersch will present her research at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference on Feb. 19. -- Story by Amy L. Wolf, Vanderbilt University Public Affairs

Read the Associated Press-syndicated story at the New York Times.

Read it at the Washington Post.