Peer gender and STEM specialization

Greta Morando

Applied Economics Letters, 2021, vol. 28, issue 12, 1041-1045

Abstract: This paper shows that students are less likely to specialize in mathematics when exposed to a high share of male peers. I exploit a curricular reform that incentivized students to obtain a mathematics qualification post-16. I show that, for those students affected by the reform, the higher the share of same-gender classmates, the higher the likelihood of obtaining a mathematics qualification for boys, and the lower the likelihood for girls. I interpret this as suggestive evidence that one’s perceived ability in mathematics, a boy-dominated subject, decreases when the share of male classmates increases. This further affects STEM participation in higher education.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13504851.2020.1796909 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:apeclt:v:28:y:2021:i:12:p:1041-1045

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RAEL20

DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2020.1796909

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Economics Letters is currently edited by Anita Phillips

More articles in Applied Economics Letters from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().