Experimental Design
Embedded in a larger survey experiment, a representative sample of 6,000 Swiss residents between the ages of 25 and 60 gives occupational advice in a hypothetical parent-child setting. That is, participants give occupational advice to a hypothetical child who must decide between accepting one of two apprenticeship offers. The participants provide advice on which offer their hypothetical child should accept.
Our survey design is tailored to the Swiss setting, which is ideal to analyze our research question for at least two reasons. First, the majority of students are underage upon receiving work and training contracts, requiring them to discuss their occupational aspirations with their parents and obtain parental signatures on the contract. Second, students choosing to pursue an apprenticeship can choose from a large variety of around 240 occupations.
To investigate whether parental career advice is gender-blind across occupations, the design creates variation in the gender of the child. That is, participants are randomized at the individual level into two groups: (1) group 1 is assigned to a hypothetical female child, and (2) group 2 is assigned to a hypothetical male child. We stratify randomization on gender, language region, and sex. Half of the participants are randomized into group 1 and the other half into group 2. Further, participants are presented a random draw of two occupations (job offers of their hypothetical child) always including one female-dominated occupation and one male-dominated occupation. Both occupations are similar in their aggregate occupational requirements (mathematics, science, language). To cover the variety of occupations, we include a representative number of female- and male-dominated occupations in the draw.