Gender Differences and Dynamics in Competition: The Role of Luck

David Gill and Victoria Prowse

No 5022, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We present experimental evidence which sheds new light on why women may be less competitive than men. Specifically, we observe striking differences in how men and women respond to good and bad luck in a competitive environment. Following a loss, women tend to reduce effort, and the effect is independent of the monetary value of the prize that the women failed to win. Men, on the other hand, reduce effort only after failing to win large prizes. Responses to previous competitive outcomes explain about 11% of the variation that we observe in women's efforts, but only about 4% of the variation in the effort of men, and differential responses to luck account for about half of the gender performance gap in our experiment. These findings help to explain both female underperformance in environments with repeated competition and the tendency for women to select into tournaments at a lower rate than men.

Keywords: competition aversion; competition; gender gap; gender differences; real effort experiment; behavioral preferences; tournament; luck; win; loss; narrow framing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D03 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2010-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Published - published in: Quantitative Economics, 2014, 5 (2), 351-376

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Related works:
Journal Article: Gender differences and dynamics in competition: The role of luck (2014)
Working Paper: Gender Differences and Dynamics in Competition: The Role of Luck (2013)
Working Paper: Gender differences and dynamics in competition: the role of luck (2012)
Working Paper: Gender Differences and Dynamics in Competition: The Role of Luck (2011)
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