Pipeline vs. Choice: The Global Gender Gap in STEM Applications

Isaac Ahimbisibwe, Adam Altjmed, Georgy Artemov, Andres Barrios-Fernandez, Aspasia Bizopoulou, Martti Kaila, Jin-Tan Liu, Rigissa Megalokonomou, JosŽ Montalban, Christopher Neilson, Jintao Sun, Sebastian Otero and Xiaoyang Ye
Additional contact information
Isaac Ahimbisibwe: Baylor University
Adam Altjmed: Stockholm University
Georgy Artemov: University of Melbourne
Andres Barrios-Fernandez: Universidad de los Andes
Aspasia Bizopoulou: VATT Institute for Economic Research
Martti Kaila: University of Glasgow
Jin-Tan Liu: National Taiwan University
Rigissa Megalokonomou: Monash University
JosŽ Montalban: Stockholm University
Christopher Neilson: Yale University
Jintao Sun: Rice University
Sebastian Otero: Columbia University
Xiaoyang Ye: Amazon

No 2458, Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers from Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University

Abstract: Women account for only 35% of global STEM graduates, a share unchanged for a decade. We use administrative microdata from centralized university admissions in ten systems to deliver the first crossnational decomposition of the STEM gender gap into a pipeline gap (academic preparedness) and a choice gap (first-choice field conditional on eligibility). In deferred-acceptance platforms where eligibility is score-based, we isolate preferences from access. The pipeline gap varies widely, from -19 to +31 percentage points across education systems. By contrast, the choice gap is remarkably stable: high-scoring women are 25 percentage points less likely than men to rank STEM first.

Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2025-08-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cowles.yale.edu/sites/default/files/2025-09/d2458.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:2458

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
Cowles Foundation, Yale University, Box 208281, New Haven, CT 06520-8281 USA
The price is None.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers from Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University Yale University, Box 208281, New Haven, CT 06520-8281 USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Brittany Ladd ().