Choosing to Compete: How Different Are Girls and Boys?

Alison Booth and Patrick Nolen

No 4027, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Using a controlled experiment, we examine the role of nurture in explaining the stylized fact that women shy away from competition. Our subjects (students just under 15 years of age) attend publicly-funded single-sex and coeducational schools. We find robust differences between the competitive choices of girls from single-sex and coed schools. Moreover, girls from single-sex schools behave more like boys even when randomly assigned to mixed-sex experimental groups. Thus it is untrue that the average female avoids competitive behaviour more than the average male. This suggests that observed gender differences might reflect social learning rather than inherent gender traits.

Keywords: gender; experiment; piece-rate; competitive behaviour; tournament (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 C92 J16 J33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2009-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (78)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2012, 81 (2), 542 - 555

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Related works:
Journal Article: Choosing to compete: How different are girls and boys? (2012)
Working Paper: Choosing to Compete: How Different are Girls and Boys? (2009)
Working Paper: Choosing to Compete: How different are girls and boys? (2009)
Working Paper: Choosing To Compete: How Different Are Girls and Boys? (2009)
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