Odyssia Ng
Graduate Student Research Fellowship | 2018 - 2019 Academic Year
Exploring the Barriers to Women's Economic and Social Empowerment: Evidence from India
Worldwide, women's businesses are typically less profitable but also smaller and less capital-intensive than men's. Why does gender inequality persist in entrepreneurship globally? Ng studies retail businesses for produce in Jaipur, India, conducting two field experiments to determine how much of the gender profit gap is due to client discrimination, different selling behavior, and capital constraints. She finds no evidence for client discrimination or different selling behavior. When provided with the same business, men and women’s profits are equal. Women earn as much as men, if given equal opportunity to do so.
Odyssia Ng, Department of Economics
Odyssia Ng is a PhD candidate in economics at Stanford University. Her research fields are development economics and gender. More specifically, she is investigating the roots of the gender profit gap among micro-entrepreneurs in India. She loves field work, and has previously also worked in Kenya and Ghana. Ng holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics from the University of St Andrews and a master’s degree in economics from Stanford University.