Kristy Buzard, associate professor of economics, has been selected to join the next cohort of visiting scholars who will conduct research while in residence at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Buzard and two longtime research partners—Laura Gee of Tufts University and Olga Stoddard of Brigham Young University—were selected by the Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Institute for the annual program. They will spend two weeks at the Federal Reserve, advancing their research on the phenomenon of invisible labor and the mental and economic toll of tasks disproportionately carried out by women.

“While traditional measures, such as the American Time Use Survey, provide insights into significant gender gaps in household and child related tasks, we know little about the differential time demands of the many invisible tasks associated with household management beyond a plethora of anecdotes,” says Buzard.

Invisible tasks include scheduling medical appointments and carpools, meal planning, registering for summer camps and extracurricular activities, and other child-related activities that are difficult to quantify “but likely have considerable implications for the persistent gender gaps in labor market outcomes,” she adds.

Buzard, Gee and Stoddard have previously teamed up to study gender gaps in the economics profession and other cases of gender-based inequality. One investigation, which drew attention from National Public Radio and the Wall Street Journal, revealed that mothers are 1.4 times more likely to be contacted by school than fathers. Their work has been supported by the Russell Sage Foundation and the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession and the Social Science Research Council Women in Economics and Mathematics Research Consortium.

The trio expects to convene at the Federal Reserve in the spring or early summer of 2025.

“We’re thrilled Professor Buzard and her counterparts were selected for this residency,” says Shana Kushner Gadarian, associate dean for research and Merle Goldberg Fabian Professor of Excellence in Citizenship and Critical Thinking. “It’s a tremendous honor and a unique opportunity that will provide an up-close view of the Fed and enable them to collaborate with its subject-area experts.”

Since 2017, the Opportunity & Inclusive Grown Institute has hosted a total of 133 visiting scholars in seven cohorts. In addition to the visiting scholar program, it hosts an annual research conference to convene academic and policy experts from across the country to discuss research related to the institute’s mission.

Buzard says the residency provides a unique opportunity to receive feedback from the bank’s researchers. She is a Melvin A. Eggers Economics Faculty Scholar and senior research associate for the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration. In addition to issues of gender inequality, her work explores international trade agreements and how international institutions, domestic politics, and economic and legal arrangements impact cooperation on trade and related issues.

By Jessica Youngman