EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Causal decomposition analysis in disparities research: investigating the effect of self-efficacy on the gender gap in STEM

Rafael Quintana (), Soojin Park () and Suyeon Kang ()
Additional contact information
Rafael Quintana: University of Kansas
Soojin Park: University of California-Riverside
Suyeon Kang: University of Central Florida

Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, 2025, vol. 59, issue 4, No 15, 3327-3351

Abstract: Abstract The underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields has been a subject of extensive research and policy debate. However, there is limited clarity regarding the specific mechanisms that generate these disparities, and which interventions are most effective in reducing the gap. In this study, we use causal decomposition analysis to estimate how the gender gap in STEM participation would change if we were to intervene on women’s self-efficacy beliefs in mathematics. Women tend to underestimate their abilities in math-related fields, which can affect their educational and career choices. The question we ask is to what extent the gender gap in individuals’ enrollment in STEM majors and identification with mathematics would be reduced if self-efficacy in mathematics were set to be equal across gender categories. The results suggest that equalizing this target factor will reduce the observed disparities in math identity by 53%, and in the enrollment of STEM majors by 2.5%. The modest influence of self-efficacy on enrollment disparities suggests that it is not the predominant factor. We discuss the implications of our empirical findings, as well as how causal decomposition analysis can benefit social and behavioral disparities research.

Keywords: Causal decomposition analysis; Causal inference; Disparities; Gender; STEM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11135-025-02110-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:qualqt:v:59:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s11135-025-02110-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11135

DOI: 10.1007/s11135-025-02110-0

Access Statistics for this article

Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology is currently edited by Vittorio Capecchi

More articles in Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().

 
Page updated 2025-10-18
Handle: RePEc:spr:qualqt:v:59:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s11135-025-02110-0