Essays in behavioral economics

This thesis is a collection of three separate essays in the field of behavioral economics. Using a variety of methods, it studies the impact of personality and gender on labor market outcomes and how personality traits are shaped.
The first essay focuses on public speaking aversion as a personality trait. We establish public speaking aversion as an economically relevant preference that varies strongly across individuals and show that it predicts career expectations in students. The second essay studies how the availability of information affects wage negotiations, with a focus on gender differences. The third essay investigates the fetal origin of the Big Five personality traits. Using Ramadan as a proxy for a negative nutritional shock, I find that Ramadan occurring during gestation leads to lower Emotional Stability, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness in adults.