Kristy Buzard, associate professor of economics, has received a grant from the Russell Sage Foundation for a project titled “Who Ya Gonna Call? Investigating the Reasons for Gender Differences in Demand for Parental Involvement.”

In addition to Buzard, the research team includes Laura Gee of Tufts University and Olga Stoddard of Brigham Young University. With support from the $64,300 grant, they will conduct a large-scale field experiment to explore the extent to which mothers are more likely than fathers to be contacted by their child’s school, and how it varies by parent availability. Their work is based on research that has shown that married mothers spend more than 50 percent more time caring for their children than married fathers. The inequality is associated with gender inequalities in labor market outcomes, capital accumulation and economic mobility.

The funding is provided by Russell Sage’s Program on Social, Political and Economic Inequality.

Buzard is a senior research associate for the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration and a Melvin A. Eggers Economics Faculty Scholar. In addition to issues of gender inequality, her work explores the formation and maintenance of international trade agreements with a focus on the impact of international institutions, government structure and domestic political pressure on the possibilities for cooperation on trade and related issues. She received a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego, in 2012.