Cassidy Bowes wins Presidential Award for Undergraduate Research

Cassidy Bowes

Cassidy Bowes has been selected as a recipient of the 2021-2022 Presidential Award for Undergraduate Research at the University at Albany for her research project titled, “Gender differences in labor market outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic" under the supervision of Professor Pinka Chatterji.

In the events of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Homeland security released guidelines of who would be an essential worker and required to keep going into work for the benefit of society. Two of the industries deemed essential were healthcare and education, both of which are heavily concentrated by female workers. In this study, Bowes uses Current Population Survey data spanning November 2019- December 2021 to test for gender differences in wages among those working in the healthcare and education occupations during the pandemic. She estimates a regression model which includes controls for time trends and other factors to isolate the impact of the pandemic on the gender difference in wages. The pandemic has presented new challenges to these employees, especially those who must provide childcare. The goal of this analysis is to see how the pandemic has affected the gender wage gap in these occupations and determine what factors contribute to this gap.