The Trouble with Boys: Social Influences and the Gender Gap in Disruptive Behavior

Marianne Bertrand and Jessica Pan

American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2013, vol. 5, issue 1, 32-64

Abstract: This paper explores the importance of the home and school environments in explaining the gender gap in disruptive behavior. We document large differences in the gender gap across key features of the home environment -- boys do especially poorly in broken families. In contrast, we find little impact of the early school environment on noncognitive gaps. Differences in endowments explain a small part of boys' noncognitive deficit in single-mother families. More importantly, noncognitive returns to parental inputs differ markedly by gender. Broken families are associated with worse parental inputs, and boys' noncognitive development, unlike that of girls', appears extremely responsive to such inputs. (JEL I21, J12, J13, J16, Z13)

JEL-codes: I21 J12 J13 J16 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
Note: DOI: 10.1257/app.5.1.32
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (308)

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Working Paper: The Trouble with Boys: Social Influences and the Gender Gap in Disruptive Behavior (2011)
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