High-Performing Peers and Female STEM Choices in School

Pierre Mouganie and Yaojing Wang ()
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Yaojing Wang: Peking University

No 12455, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Women have historically been underrepresented in STEM majors and occupations, a gap that has persisted over time. There are concerns that this is related to academic choices made at an earlier age. The purpose of this paper is to examine how social environment affects women's STEM choices as early as high school. Using administrative data from China, we find that exposure to high-performing female peers in mathematics increases the likelihood that women choose a science track during high school, while more high-performing males decrease this likelihood. We also find that peer quality has persistent effects on college outcomes. Overall, there is little evidence of peer effects for boys. Our results suggest that girls doing well in mathematics provide an affirmation effect that encourages female classmates to pursue a STEM track.

Keywords: peer quality; gender peer effects; STEM; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I24 I26 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2019-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-gen and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Published - published in: Journal of Labor Economics, 2020, 38 (3), 805 - 841

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https://docs.iza.org/dp12455.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: High-Performing Peers and Female STEM Choices in School (2020)
Working Paper: High Performing Peers and Female STEM Choices in School (2017)
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