Overconfidence And Preferences For Competition

Ernesto Reuben, Paola Sapienza and Luigi Zingales

No 21695, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study whether and when preferences for competition are a positive economic trait among high-earners and to what extent this trait can explain the gender gap in income among MBAs. Consistent with the experimental evidence, preferences for competition are a positive economic trait only for non-overconfident individuals. Preferences for competition correlate with income only at graduation when bonuses are guaranteed and not a function of performance. Overconfident, competition loving MBAs have lower compensation and income growth, and experience greater exit from high-reward industries and more frequent job interruptions. Preferences for competition do not explain the gender pay gap among MBAs.

JEL-codes: C93 D81 D84 I21 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-hrm and nep-lab
Note: CF LS
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (95)

Published as ERNESTO REUBEN & PAOLA SAPIENZA & LUIGI ZINGALES, 2024. "Overconfidence and Preferences for Competition," The Journal of Finance, vol 79(2), pages 1087-1121.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w21695.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Overconfidence and Preferences for Competition (2024)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:21695

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w21695

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().