Credit: Ill. Niklas Elmehed © Nobel Prize Outreach This use is strictly editorial. This permission is free of charge, according to https://nobelprize.qbank.se/mb/?h=f142eee16bc09dd5247dd753fd9ef889

On Oct. 9, 2023, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded to Claudia Goldin, PhD, the first woman to be awarded the prize solo and the first woman offered tenure by Harvard’s economics department.  Dr. Goldin’s work has been centered around documenting and understanding the history of women’s labor force participation and the gender wage gap.  Her work has important  implications for labor market, educational and social welfare policies.

Dr. Goldin’s work is not confined to understanding disparities, but extends to correcting them.  Across academia men economics majors outnumber women at an alarming rate. In an IMF podcast Dr. Goldin observed: “Men think economics is about finance so they take economics. Women think economics is about finance, so they don’t take economics. Women believe economics is not about people, that psychology is about people, which is what many women end up majoring in. We have to do better in teaching them that economics is about people.” Dr. Goldin was the principal investigator in a the Undergraduate Women in Economics Challenge, which was an experiment that incentivized colleges and universities to implement creative interventions to improve the popularity of majoring in economics to women.

Cheryl Carleton, PhD, Associate Professor, Economics, who teaches Women in Economics ECO 3118, noted that Villanova is working to “increase diversity overall, which includes women.” According to the Federal Reserve, 7% of white men and 6.4% of underrepresented men major in economics at Villanova University, whereas only 2.5% of  white and underrepresented women major in economics.  At Villanova, significant gains have been made by hiring more diverse faculty who bring “new methodologies, which appeals to a broader audience, including women.”

Dr. Carleton noted that Mary Kelly, PhD, Associate Chair, Economics, has been active in promoting a diverse range of events and speakers to appeal to a broader range of students.  The most recent Economics Department newsletter documents these efforts.  Carlton trusts these initiatives “inspires [women & underrepresented students] to take some economics courses and thus they are more able to use the tools of economics throughout whatever career path they choose.”

Below is sample of the books Goldin’s authored, co-authored and edited in our collection:

• Urban Slavery in the American South, 1820-1860: A Quantitative History. University of Chicago Press, 1976.
• Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women. Oxford University Press, 1990.
• The Regulated Economy: A Historical Approach to Political Economy. University of Chicago Press, 1994.
• The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century. University of Chicago Press, 1998.
• Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America’s Economic History. University of Chicago Press, 2006.
• The Race Between Education and Technology. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008.
• Women Working Longer: Increased Employment at Older Ages. The University of Chicago Press, 2018.
• Career and Family: Women’s Century-long Journey Toward Equity. Princeton University Press, 2021.

Many of Dr. Goldin’s papers are published in the most prestigious economics journals.  The breadth of her research is thrilling.  You can browse the papers on EconLit here.

Finally, Dr. Goldin’s devotion to a rigorous scientific method is expressed via the many datasets she collected and made accessible for replication and further uses via the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.

Linda Hauck, MLS, MBA is Business Librarian at Falvey Library.

Join Linda Hauck, Business Librarian, Falvey Library, for a Backpack to Briefcase: Business Research session. Competitive Intelligence involves gathering, analyzing, and acting on data that impact an organization’s future success. This introductory research session will focus on how to gather public information across multiple sources about competitors and industries. CI allows organizations to make better decisions, see opportunities and avoid pitfalls. Knowing how to gather information is the first step.

Bring your laptop and an appetite to flex your CI skills and enjoy free pizza!

The workshop will be offered on the following dates:

•    Monday, Oct. 23 at 5 p.m., Falvey Library, Room 206: REGISTER HERE
•    Monday, Dec. 4 at 5 p.m., Falvey Library, Room 205: REGISTER HERE
•    Wednesday, Dec. 6 at 5 p.m., Falvey Library, Room 205: REGISTER HERE

Photo by Andrew McKeough ’19

The Falvey Scholars Program, established in 2002, is an annual program by Falvey Library and the Center for Research and Fellowships to recognize outstanding undergraduate research. Award winners are selected from candidates nominated by Villanova faculty and reviewed by Library and University staff.

This year, we honor eight students for seven outstanding projects, which reflect the strength of Villanova’s undergraduate research as well as the support the Library provides through its expert staff, copious resources, and welcoming spaces.

We are introducing our scholars and covering their research in their own words. Look for additional coverage of Thomas and Rohan and their fellow Falvey Scholars in the fall issue of Mosaic.

Congratulations to all of our Falvey Scholars, past and present!

Rohan Biscuitwala ’23 VSB & Thomas Haas ’23 VSB (Joint Project)

Title: “Savor the Flavor: The Mediating Role of Emotions on the Relationship Between Flavor and Behavior”

Faculty Mentor: Aronte Bennett, PhD, Villanova School of Business

Describe your research in your own words.
Our project used empirical research methods to investigate the impact that gustatory experiences related to specific flavors have on emotional reactions. Primary results indicated the emergence of sweet flavors in certain emotions, including warm, secure, and calm, among others. The next phase of this study will include gathering alternative methods to priming flavors, and, later, observing how these emotional responses influence consumer behavior.

How did Falvey’s resources, databases, and spaces impact your research?
Falvey Library’s online database was one of the main sources we used in researching for this study, a part of the process that we have spent a great amount of time on with how little background we had coming in.

Psychinfo is one we particularly looked to quite a bit initially in researching multimodal sensory experiences that fuse in the brain, like smell and taste. This helped us start to form the actual hypothesis and ideate examples of what the experiment could look like, reviewing pre-existing studies in based on the sense of smell in journals found through said database. Past experience with the database from Competitive Effectiveness class gave us some idea of how to use it, but we now have a much greater appreciation for just how useful and expansive the knowledge contained within it can be.

How did the Library’s staff impact your research and academic experience?
Linda Hauck, Business Librarian, has also been a big help in our literature review process, pointing us in the right direction toward sources we could base the development of our research design on. Considering our general inexperience with research projects of this scale, any insight we could gain was extremely beneficial, so Mrs. Hauck’s assistance with the research process made a clear impact, especially in looking for example experiments to help brainstorm the set-up of our supplemental study.

This supplemental one will involve conducting an in-person field study, and Mrs. Hauck provided us with great resources as well as a guide on how to find more, allowing us to outline how this study should be designed. Something we have learned about the research project process is just how intensive review processes can be, so I am sure we would have overlooked something if not for the assistance of Falvey Library, between its help in creating a comprehensive literature review and unlocking ideas and best practices for conducting this study.

What’s next for you?

T.H.: The process shined a light on a career path that had not really given the time of day before. Perhaps my love of exploring new ideas can be fulfilled just as well in academia as it can in the market (or just on my own time). It has also sharpened my analytical and research skills, which will be useful in my career given my Business Analytics co-major and interest in that line of work.

R.B: The main reason I got into this research project was my curiosity for consumer behavior, and this experience has really built my passion for this subject, exposing me to great research pieces and allowing me to think more in depth about neuro-psychology. This makes me want to explore more about our unconscious behaviors for relevant use cases, such as the prominence of para-social influencers or how social media algorithms affect our behaviors. Ultimately, I feel this experience has opened the door for me into a subject I am passionate about and want to continue researching.

 Shawn Proctor, MFA, is Communication and Marketing Program Manager at Falvey Library.

Addison Drone ’22 VSB, 2022 Falvey Scholar (Photo by Andrew McKeough)

The Falvey Scholars Program is an annual program established by Falvey Library to recognize outstanding undergraduate research. Now in its 20th year, the program is a collective initiative of the Library and the Center for Research and Fellowships. The recipients of this award are selected from a pool of candidates nominated by Villanova faculty and reviewed by Library staff and faculty.

This year, eight students received awards, their work reflecting the breadth and depth of undergraduate research at the University as well as the support the Library, its resources and staff, provide student-scholars.

This blog is the third of seven installments, which will introduce our scholars and cover their research in their own words. Look for additional coverage of the Falvey Scholars in the fall issue of Mosaic.

Congratulations to all of our Falvey Scholars, past and present!

Scholars Summary

Addison Drone ’22 VSB

• Project Title: “50 Years of Sports Teams in Work Teams Research: Missed Opportunities and New Directions for Studying Team Processes”
• Faculty Mentor: Narda Quigley, PhD, Associate Professor of Management and Chair of the Department of Management and Operations, Villanova School of Business
• Hometown: Summit, N.J.
• Other Honors: Presidential Scholarship, Honors Program

Describe your research in your own words.
We conducted a literature review on sports teams studies over the last 50 years. We looked at what topics have been covered, what has not been covered, and how these outcomes/findings within sports samples can be applied to broader work teams.

How did the Library’s staff impact your research and academic experience?
I worked with the Library staff during both the research and within my academic career through my Competitive Effectiveness course. They made sure that I knew how to utilize the databases and helped me get started with research ideas.

How did Falvey’s resources and databases impact your research?
I utilized Falvey’s database library to conduct a thorough scan of the existing literature on the topic. Ultimately, we found over 250 applicable articles covering over 270 applicable studies.

What’s next for you?
Working postgrad at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, a Japanese investment bank, within New York City.

Will you continue this research direction or has it inspired you to new research interests?
While my professional career is within a finance field and not sports/management, this remains an interest that I will continue to foster as I enter my postgraduate career.