Freed from the Boys: How Single-Sex Schooling Shapes Girls’ Effort and Performance in High-Stakes Exams

Caterina Calsamiglia (), Yarine Fawaz, Daniel Fernández-Kranz () and Junhee Lee
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Caterina Calsamiglia: IPEG
Daniel Fernández-Kranz: IE University
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Daniel Fernandez Kranz

No 18208, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Prior research has found that boys often outperform girls in high-stakes math exams, raising the question of whether these gender differences under pressure stem from nature or nurture. This relative female disadvantage can influence access to selective university programs and subsequent career paths. Using administrative and survey data linked to a lottery-based school assignment system, we show that this disadvantage is reversed in single-sex schools: girls randomly assigned to SS schools devote more effort, outperform boys in high-stakes math exams, and have a higher likelihood of enrolling in university STEM degrees (excluding biology). These positive effects come at a cost to well-being in terms of higher stress and worse mental health. These effects are not driven by differences in teacher gender or school resources due to public versus private management. Our findings are consistent with theories emphasizing the social costs of norm violation: in single-sex schools, girls are freed from peer norms that may otherwise discourage overt academic ambition, allowing them to sustain higher effort in competitive and male-dominated domains.

Keywords: Korea; high-stakes exams; education; nurture; single-sex schooling; random assignment; gender; gender gap; natural experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D91 I21 I24 I28 J16 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-gen, nep-hrm and nep-ure
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