Pipeline vs. Choice: The Global Gender Gap in STEM Applications

Isaac Ahimbisibwe, Adam Altjmed, Georgy Artemov, Andres Barrios-Fernandez (), Aspasia Bizopoulou (), Martti Kaila (), Jin-Tan Liu (), Rigissa Megalokonomou (), Jose Montalban (), Christopher A. Neilson (), Jintao Sun, Sebastian Otero () and Xiaoyang Ye
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Isaac Ahimbisibwe: Baylor University
Adam Altjmed: Swedish Institute for Social Research
Georgy Artemov: University of Melbourne
Andres Barrios-Fernandez: Universidad de los Andes
Aspasia Bizopoulou: VATT, Helsinki
Martti Kaila: University of Glasgow
Jin-Tan Liu: National Taiwan University
Rigissa Megalokonomou: Monash University
Jose Montalban: SOFI, Stockholm University
Christopher A. Neilson: Princeton University
Jintao Sun: Rice University
Sebastian Otero: Columbia University
Xiaoyang Ye: Amazon

No 18092, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Women account for only 35% of global STEM graduates, a share that has remained unchanged for a decade. We use administrative microdata from centralized university admissions in ten systems to deliver the first cross-national decomposition of the STEM gender gap into a pipeline gap (academic preparedness) and a choice gap (first-choice field conditional on eligibility). In deferred-acceptance platforms where eligibility is score-based, we isolate preferences from access. The pipeline gap varies widely, from -19 to +31 percentage points across education systems. By contrast, the choice gap is remarkably stable: high-scoring women are 25 percentage points less likely than men to rank STEM first.

Keywords: centralized application platforms; STEM gender gap; gender inequality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 I24 N30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-08
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