Gender and Performance Under Competitive Pressure: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental Studies

Christopher W. Gardiner () and Eva Markowsky ()
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Christopher W. Gardiner: Universität Hamburg
Eva Markowsky: Universität Potsdam, CEPA

No 94, CEPA Discussion Papers from Center for Economic Policy Analysis

Abstract: This paper analyses a crucial aspect of the gender gap in competitive behaviour: performance under competitive pressure. We rely on existing experimental evidence to test the prevalent hypothesis that women ’choke’ under pressure while men increase their performance in high-pressure environments. To this aim, we combine the evidence of 70 experimental studies reporting 237 effect sizes that contrast gender differences in performance in various real-effort tasks in non-competitive and competitive settings. Contrary to prevalent belief, the gender gap in performance does not systematically increase under competitive pressure.

Keywords: competitiveness; performance; experiments; gender; meta-analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C9 D91 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-12
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pot:cepadp:94

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