The Trouble with Boys: Social Influences and the Gender Gap in Disruptive Behavior

Marianne Bertrand and Jessica Pan

No 17541, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper explores the importance of the home and school environments in explaining the gender gap in disruptive behavior. We document large differences in the gender gap across key features of the home environment - boys do especially poorly in broken families. In contrast, we find little impact of the early school environment on non-cognitive gaps. Differences in endowments explain a small part of boys' non-cognitive deficit in single-mother families. More importantly, non-cognitive returns to parental inputs differ markedly by gender. Broken families are associated with worse parental inputs and boys' non-cognitive development, unlike girls', appears extremely responsive to such inputs.

JEL-codes: J13 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme, nep-lab and nep-ure
Note: CH ED LS
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Published as Marianne Bertrand & Jessica Pan, 2013. "The Trouble with Boys: Social Influences and the Gender Gap in Disruptive Behavior," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 32-64, January.

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