Unpacking the STEM Gender Gap: Evidence From Taiwan
Ian Fillmore (ianfillmore@wustl.edu),
Hsuan-Hua Huang (h.hsuan-hua@wustl.edu),
Hao-Chung Li (h-c.li@nccu.edu.tw) and
Hsien-Ming Lien (hmlien@nccu.edu.tw)
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Ian Fillmore: Washington University in St. Louis
Hsuan-Hua Huang: Washington University in St. Louis
Hao-Chung Li: National Chengchi University
Hsien-Ming Lien: National Chengchi University
No 2024-013, Working Papers from Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group
Abstract:
Across many countries, women enroll in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields less often than men. Using Taiwanese data from 2011–2018, we unpack the drivers of this gap. We find the gap in STEM enrollment largely reflects a gap in STEM applications. Conditional on applying to a STEM program, a female applicant is as or more likely to be admitted as a similar male applicant. We then turn to the gap in STEM applications and find one-third can be explained by math and science scores. We also find important differences between men and women in how test scores predict whether they apply to any STEM programs and how many they apply to. Finally, we find the gender gap in STEM applications differs widely across high schools, suggesting that educational institutions and social factors play a role in determining the number of women who pursue degrees in STEM.
Keywords: college major choice; higher education; Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 I26 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen
Note: MIP
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http://humcap.uchicago.edu/RePEc/hka/wpaper/Fillmo ... ender-gap-taiwan.pdf First version, June 18, 2024 (application/pdf)
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