Gender Differences in Response to Big Stakes

Ghazala Azmat, Caterina Calsamiglia and Nagore Iriberri

Journal of the European Economic Association, 2016, vol. 14, issue 6, 1372-1400

Abstract: It is commonly perceived that increasing incentives improves performance. However, the reaction to increased incentives might differ between men and women, leading to gender differences in performance. In a natural experiment, we study the gender difference in performance resulting from changes in stakes. We use detailed information on the performance of high-school students and exploit the variation in the stakes of tests, which range from $5\%$ to $27\%$ of the final grade. We find that female students outperform male students in all tests—but to a relatively larger degree when the stakes are low. The gender gap disappears in tests taken at the end of high school, which count for $50\%$ of the university entry grade.

JEL-codes: C30 D03 I21 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (54)

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Related works:
Journal Article: GENDER DIFFERENCES IN RESPONSE TO BIG STAKES (2016)
Working Paper: Gender Differences in Response to Big Stakes (2014)
Working Paper: Gender differences in response to big stakes (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jeurec:v:14:y:2016:i:6:p:1372-1400.

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