A new paper by Clemson Economics Professors Rob Fleck and Andy Hanssen is the subject of an extensive “Wonkblog” column in today’s Washington Post. Their paper, “Persistence and Change in Age-Specific Gender Gaps: Hollywood Actors from the Silent Era Onward”, studies gender differences in leading roles in Hollywood films since 1905. While starring roles for women are prominent when they are young, starring roles disproportionately skew towards males for older characters. While starring roles for women are prominent when they are young, they disproportionately skew towards males for older roles. There has also been little change in the gender composition of leading roles by occupation in Hollywood, in spite of a very large change in the composition of the work force. Fleck and Hannsen’s paper, published in the October 2016 volume of the International Review of Law and Economics documents and interprets these findings. The paper can be downloaded for free from an on-campus computer at this link.
