Gender differences in overconfidence and decision-making in high-stakes competitions: Evidence from freediving contests

Mario Lackner and Hendrik Sonnabend ()
Additional contact information
Hendrik Sonnabend: FernUniversität Hagen, https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/wirtschaftspolitik/team/hendrik.sonnabend.shtml

No 2020-16, Economics working papers from Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Abstract: This study examines gender differences in overconfidence and decision-making in a high-stakes environment. Using data on more than 40,000 individual attempts from international freediving competitions, we provide evidence that women, on average, are less likely than men to overestimate their ability. This result is robust to different measures of overconfidence and can be partly explained by experience. There are no substantial gender differences on the intensive margin of overconfidence. In terms of performance, results suggest that women suffer more from overconfidence than men.

Keywords: overconfidence; gender; decision-making; competition; freediving (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 D81 J16 Z2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen, nep-spo and nep-upt
Note: English
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http://www.econ.jku.at/papers/2020/wp2016.pdf (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: Gender differences in overconfidence and decision making in high-stakes competitions: evidence from freediving contests (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jku:econwp:2020-16

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