Gender differences in competition emerge early in life

Matthias Sutter and Daniela Glätzle-Rützler

Working Papers from Faculty of Economics and Statistics, Universität Innsbruck

Abstract: We study gender differences in the willingness to compete in a large-scale experiment with 1,035 children and teenagers, aged three to eighteen years. Using an easy math task for children older than eight years and a running task for the younger ones we find that boys are much more likely to enter a tournament than girls across the whole age spectrum considered here. This gender gap is observed already with three-year olds, indicating that gender differences in competitiveness emerge very early in life. The gap is robust to controlling for gender differences in risk attitudes and overconfidence.

Keywords: Competition; gender gap; experiment; children; teenagers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41
Date: 2010-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (48)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Gender Differences in Competition Emerge Early in Life (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inn:wpaper:2010-14

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