Economist Analia Schlosser, focusing on women and policy

JERUSALEM – Cultural concerns don't necessarily stop Israel's Arab women from working. The lack of affordable day care does.

Longer maternity leave for Austrian women might keep them in the labor force longer. And girls in areas of India with more sex-selection abortions are less likely to be malnourished.

These are some of the discoveries by Argentina-born economist Analia Schlosser of Tel Aviv University, whose research has been cited by the Bank of Israel, the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Israel extended its free day-care program more widely after a policy debate that included Schlosser's work, and a group lobbying for mixed-gender classes used her studies to show their benefits. Schlosser, who often chooses topics related to women or gender, says she went into economics rather than mathematics because she wanted to be involved in practical policy questions.

"Women are more interested in things connected to this world, less theoretical things," said Schlosser, 38. "I try to find a causal effect. This is one of the things that links all my research."

Schlosser, who spent a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and two years at Princeton University, is a rarity in Israel. Only two of the 19 faculty members in her economics department are women. At Hebrew University of Jerusalem, only one of 26 is female. The comparable rate in the U.S. is 20 percent.

Schlosser's work on gender separation in schools produced new information for public policy makers in Britain and the U.S. and led to other studies, said co-author Victor Lavy of Hebrew University, who hired Schlosser as a research assistant when she was an undergraduate.

"All of her work touches upon important questions of public policy," Lavy said. "I see her among the leading economists in Israel doing empirical work, very careful empirical work." Lavy helped arrange for Schlosser's year in Cambridge, Mass., at MIT as a doctoral student, and her two years at Princeton in New Jersey as a postdoc.

The 2011 article concluded that a higher proportion of girls in classes improves academic outcomes for both boys and girls and lowers disruption, violence and teacher fatigue. It was used by Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah, an Israeli group dedicated to fostering "tolerance and openness in Orthodoxy," in lobbying against the trend of increasing gender separation in Israel's state religious elementary-school classes.

"I've cited this study in lectures and in parlor meetings," said Shmuel Shattach, executive director of the Tel Aviv-based group. "It's a very serious piece of research."

One of the main reasons women are rare in Israeli economics departments may be that to get a job, economists need to travel to the U.S. to do their doctorate or postdoctoral work. Partners and children can make that more difficult, according to Schlosser.

"Most of the action is there," said Schlosser, who herself became a mother for the first time last year.

"Sometimes you feel more lonely, because there aren't very many women around," Schlosser said. "When you go out to dinner, it's all men and you. I didn't have a female role model to follow. I do see younger women asking me for advice, and I think it's nice."

Schlosser says the degree of care she strives for in her research — using several methodologies and trying to be self-critical — may be gender-related.

"Women are much more careful," Schlosser said. "When they want to say something, they want to be 200 percent sure. So they recheck from all different angles, to make sure that what they see in the data is what it is."

She doesn't intend that necessarily to be a criticism of men. In fact, it could be that women are sometimes too cautious, she said: They tend to take longer to publish, which also could be a result of family obligations. The end result can be a slowdown in their careers.

So far, gender hasn't hindered Schlosser, who in 2010 was chosen to be a member of the Young Scholars Forum of the prestigious Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

She does have to balance family and career. A nanny cares for her son while she works. Her parents, who moved to Israel last year, also help, she said.

"I see how tired I am and how demanding motherhood is, even if I have a supportive partner and the most ideal conditions I can think of," said Schlosser, who earned tenure before her baby was born. "It's not that it's impossible, but things slow down a lot. I have started to say no to a few things."