Anya Marchenko

Welcome! I am a fourth year PhD student in Economics at Brown University. I received my BA in Economics with Honors from the University of Chicago and am supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

My research interests lie in applied microeconomics.

During Fall 2025 I will be a visiting PhD student at the University of Chicago.

Working Papers

Accusing and Believing in Equilibrium: Evidence from #MeToo
(with Bobak Pakzad-Hurson)
Abstract  |  PDF Many social movements encourage reporting of wrongdoing, but critics argue this increases false accusations. We study how #MeToo – a social movement that encouraged reporting of sexual harassment – changed the truthfulness of sexual harassment accusations and adjudicators' willingness to believe them. We estimate that #MeToo increased the probability of winning a sexual harassment complaint by 10.1 pp. This increase can reflect stronger complaints filed (selection) or more favorable adjudicators (direct treatment). We develop a framework to separate these effects and find evidence for both channels. Exploiting complaints filed before but resolved after #MeToo to estimate the direct treatment effect, we show that adjudicators became more likely to rule in favor of complainants, particularly male complainants. Newly induced complaints became more likely to be substantiated, with women’s complaints positively selected (more credible) and men’s negatively selected (less credible).

Pre-Doctoral Work

Firm location, childcare, and the gender profit gap
(with Solène Delecourt, Anne Fitzpatrick, Layna Lowe)
R&R at Strategic Management Journal
Abstract  |  PDF There is a significant gender profit gap among small firms in developing countries. How do a firm's initial conditions contribute to this disparity? If men and women start different businesses – operating in different locations or sectors – and those initial conditions are hard to change, it could limit overall profitability for women. In our representative sample of 3,077 businesses in Kenya, women's profits are 47% lower than men's. We identify two initial and sticky conditions contributing to this gap. First, women locate their businesses in less profitable locations, closer to home. Second, women operate in crowded sectors, whereas men are over five times more likely to be monopolists than women. These constraints are more binding for women with greater childcare responsibilities, emphasizing the importance of initial conditions in perpetuating the gender profit gap.

The impact of host race and gender on prices on Airbnb
Journal of Housing Economics, 2019
Abstract  |  PDF This study investigates the impact of host race and gender on Airbnb property prices. I use an existing dataset of Airbnb listings and visually inspect 70,000 host profile pictures to code host demographics. I estimate that Asian hosts earn 4–5%, and Black male hosts 3%, less than White males for the same type of property. However, controlling for more observables weakens the effects, requiring a cautious interpretation of these point estimates. I use two proxies for the number of bookings a listing has to estimate whether a demand or supply shift is responsible for the price disparity. I find that despite the lower prices they charge for listings, minority hosts face lower demand. These findings are consistent with, but not conclusive of, the presence of discrimination.