As part of the ‘Household Economics and Labor Workshop’ held on March 5-6, Professor Michèle Tertilt (University of Mannheim) was invited for an interview following her highly anticipated keynote address entitled “Status Externalities and Fertility in Korea”.

LISER researcher Alexandros Theloudis sat down with Michèle Tertilt and asked a few pertinent questions on decision making in households. They are:

1. A large part of your research revolves around the role of gender and family in the macroeconomy. What have we learned from this research?
2. Recent attempts to model household behavior resort to the assumption that spouses cooperate while making decisions. Some of your work admits that spouses may actually not cooperate. Why is this important?
3. As gender economic disparities seem to slowly disappear, do you think we may soon no longer need to account for gender in models of economic decision making?
4. What are the areas of family economics or gender that are mostly in need of new research?
5. The European Economic Association and other societies have taken initiatives for the better representation of women (and other underrepresented groups) in the profession. What message do you have for a female student who considers a career in economics?

About the ‘Household Economics and Labor Workshop’

Gathering 60+ participants over a two-day period, the objective of the workshop was to create stimulating interactions between senior and junior researchers working at the intersection of household economics, labor economics, and time.
Discover the full summary here