Join us for an engaging talk by Jennifer Pate and Mary Rigdon. This event will take place March 26 in Social Sciences 224 from 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights and participate in a stimulating discussion!
Upcoming Events at the Freedom Center
Join us for thought-provoking lectures, discussions, and workshops on philosophy, politics, economics and law.
FC Talks: Jennifer Pate and Mary Rigdon
March 26 @ 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
The Puzzle of Political Ambition and Prosociality
Bios
Mary Rigdon
Dr. Mary Rigdon, Director of the Freedom Center and Associate Professor in the Department of Political Economy and Moral Science at the University of Arizona, is a nationally recognized expert on gender equity. Her recent work focuses on understanding gender differences in competitiveness and the role this plays in the persistent gender wage gap. Mary’s work is supported by the National Science Foundation and has been published in top scientific journals, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Phil Trans B, and Evolution and Human Behavior. Her research has been covered by local, national, and international media, including interviews with the U of A News, a special feature in the Financial Post, KJZZ’s The Show (Phx, AZ), and KVOA Channel 4 News (Tucson, AZ). Mary has presented this research in the National Science Foundation’s Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences Distinguished Lecture Series, and she was competitively selected to present her research at the 2023 SXSW U of A Wonder House.
Jennifer Pate
Dr. Jennifer Pate is a Professor of Economics and Associate Dean of Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University. Her areas of interest include general economics, industrial organization, experimental and behavioral economics, applied microeconomics, public economics, and economics of giving, altruism, and reciprocity. Working collaboratively with Richard Fox, Professor of Political Science and International Relations., Dr. Pate has conducted significant research on the gender gap in political ambition to help understand and address women’s under-representation in politics. Read their most recent article: (2022) Knowing the Competition: Gender Qualifications, and Willingness to Run in Elections, Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 76, Issue 2.
Can’t make it in person?
Abstract
“The Puzzle of Political Ambition and Prosociality”
Alessandra Cassar, Jennifer Pate, and Mary L. Rigdon
We study whether embedding redistributive prosocial opportunities in political competition alters political ambition and narrows the gender gap in willingness to run for office. Existing evidence indicates that women are more inequality-averse and less likely to enter competitive settings, yet more responsive to prosocial incentives. We test whether redesigning competitive political environments to include redistributive opportunities can mitigate gender disparities in candidate entry. We conducted a laboratory experiment with 320 participants from the University of Alabama and Loyola Marymount University. Using a within-subjects design, we compare a standard election with one in which the elected leader could redistribute earnings to the lowest earner. Our results show that redistributive opportunities increase participation rates for both women and men by nearly 5%, yet the gender gap in ambition persists (with women reporting 17.6% lower willingness to run than men). Findings of a negative correlation between willingness to run and generosity reveal a paradox: those most inclined to help others are often the least likely to seek positions that would enable them to do so.
