Four researchers at our university have been awarded grants from the NWO Social Sciences and Humanities domain in the Open competition. The laureates are Dr Anne Boring of Erasmus School of Economics, Prof Claartje ter Hoeven, Dr Agnieszka Kanas and Prof Maartje Luijk of Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences. They will receive a budget of up to 400,000 euros to conduct research on a topic of their own choice, without thematic preconditions.
The funded research projects:
Diversity in leadership positions and diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in Dutch firms
dr. Anne Boring Â
Firms increasingly implement diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies to improve diversity in leadership positions. This is despite a lack of solid evidence on their effectiveness. We propose to provide the first comprehensive study of DEI policies in the Netherlands. First, we will document potential links between diversity in leadership and existence (or not) of DEI policies across firms. Second, we will investigate both employees' and firms' attitudes towards DEI policies using survey experiments. Third, we will use these findings to inform the design of optimal DEI policies and further test their effectiveness by conducting field experiments within organizations.
Digital Laborers: Crafting Policy with Behind-the-Scenes Microworkers
prof. dr. Claartje ter Hoeven
The functioning of artificial intelligence often requires human labor, called microwork. In Europe, there are millions of people doing this work at home through online platforms. This work is presented online in small tasks, such as coding data and labeling images. Right now, microwork is poorly paid and unregulated. The European Commission has made a proposal to regulate online platform work. To make the proposed regulations as effective as possible, this research examines the concerns and needs of microworkers themselves and how these can be translated into effective policies, in which the working conditions of microworkers are of primary concern.
Integration Activities for Improving Refugees’ Position in the Labor Market
dr. Agnieszka Kanas
To address refugees’ challenges in the labor market, policymakers have established various integration activities, ranging from language courses to verifying foreign credentials and skills and on-the-job training measures. However, refugees’ access to some integration programs may be constrained by caseworkers’ discretion, or refugees’ participation may not be valued by employers. This project studies inequality in access to integration activities and variation in employers’ response to refugees’ participation in these activities. By distinguishing between different types of employees and employers and focusing on caseworkers’ discretion in allocation decisions, it will reveal which integration interventions work, for whom, and why.
Perfect parents
prof. dr. Maartje Luijk
Raising children is a beautiful yet heavy task. Many parents experience exhaustion, which is a precursor of parental burnout. Underlying parental exhaustion and burnout are societal ideas that parenting can be done ‘right’ and that parents should be able to do it on their own. Paradoxically, although parenting advice is intended to support parents, it may exacerbate the problem by wrongly implying that perfect parenting is possible. In this project, pedagogues study how societal trends influence parental exhaustion and burnout, and will develop, in co-creation with parents, future-proof solutions to reduce parental exhaustion and burnout.
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