Gender and Competition: Evidence from Jumping Competitions

René Böheim and Mario Lackner

No 2013-05, Economics working papers from Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Abstract: We analyze if female athletes differ from male athletes in their competitive behavior, using data from high jump and pole vault competitions. We estimate if female athletes use risky strategies as often as male athletes and whether or nor their returns to risky strategies differ. Returns to risky strategies are identified via an instrumental variable approach where we use other athletes' declarations as instruments for individual risk taking. We find that women use risky strategies less often than men, although their returns are significantly greater than men's. We also find that women's returns to risky strategies do not differ between relatively low and relatively high risk situations, whereas male athletes' returns decrease in the level of risk. Our results show considerable differences between male and female professional athletes which are likely to be a lower bound of overall gender differences in risk-taking behavior.

Keywords: Competition; gender differences; risk preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D81 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2013-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Gender and Competition: Evidence from Jumping Competitions (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jku:econwp:2013_05

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