Meet Claire Montialoux, Our New Assistant Professor

Claire Montialoux joined the Goldman School faculty this fall as Assistant Professor. We recently sat down with Dr. Montialoux to discuss her background in labor economics, research on reducing racial earnings gaps, and growing up in France.

Your research is in labor economics, including how policies can reduce deep-rooted inequalities in the labor market. What drew you to this subject matter?

One of the most striking features of American society is the persistence of large racial and gender economic disparities. Today, there is a 25% difference in average earnings between black and white workers. This difference is the same as in 1975: Racial economic disparities in the labor market have stagnated for almost half a century. A similar phenomenon can be observed for gender inequality: Despite the fact that women are more likely to have a college degree today, women are still paid less than men. Why is it so hard to reduce these long-standing inequalities? Why is progress happening so slowly or even not at all? In my research I try to shed light on these questions and to analyze what types of policies could contribute to more rapid progress towards equality.

One of your most recent papers had some pretty keen insights on minimum wages and racial earnings gaps. What are some things that the future policy-makers at Goldman should know?

Over the last 70 years, wage inequality between black and white workers has fallen only once: in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when it was divided by a factor of 2. Since then the black/white earning gap has stopped falling. In my job market paper, I try to better understand what has happened in the 1960s and 1970s. With Ellora Derenoncourt (who will also be joining the Berkeley faculty next year) we show that the 1967 extension of the minimum wage to new sectors of the economy that were not previously covered and where black workers were overrepresented played a big role in the decline in the black/white wage gap. According to our estimates, this extension of the minimum wage can explain about 20% of the fall in racial income inequality observed during the Civil Rights Era. For context, this is about as large as the effect of school desegregation.

Today, black workers, Hispanics, and women are overrepresented at or just above the minimum wage. A higher minimum wage could contribute to reducing the large racial and gender inequalities that remain today.

What kinds of questions are you investigating moving forward?

I am currently investigating the dynamics of racial economic disparities in Brazil. Brazil was the last country to abolish slavery, in 1888. Disparities between whites and non-whites remain very large today. Moving forward, I also want to study the policies that could reduce the wage gaps between natives and immigrants and gender disparities in Europe.  

Tell us a bit more about yourself. Where are you from? What are some of your hobbies?

I am from France. I grew up in Marseille, in the south (take the light of Los Angeles, the waters of Lake Tahoe, and a bit of the Mission district in San Francisco—and you can get a glimpse of it), before moving to Paris for my studies. One of my favorite spots on campus is the Art studio. You can find me doing ceramics or, more recently, darkroom photography!