Beliefs about Gender

Pedro Bordalo, Katherine B. Coffman, Nicola Gennaioli and Andrei Shleifer

No 22972, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We conduct a laboratory experiment on the determinants of beliefs about own and others’ ability across different domains. A preliminary look at the data points to two distinct forces: miscalibration in estimating performance depending on the difficulty of tasks and gender stereotypes. We develop a theoretical model that separates these forces and apply it to analyze a large laboratory dataset in which participants estimate their own and a partner’s performance on questions across six subjects: arts and literature, emotion recognition, business, verbal reasoning, mathematics, and sports. We find that participants greatly overestimate not only their own ability but also that of others, suggesting that miscalibration is a substantial, first order factor in stated beliefs. Women are better calibrated than men, providing more accurate estimates of ability both for themselves and for others. Gender stereotypes also have strong predictive power for beliefs, particularly for men’s beliefs about themselves and others’ beliefs about the ability of men. Our findings help interpret evidence on gender gaps in self-confidence.

JEL-codes: C91 D01 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-lab
Note: LS
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

Published as Pedro Bordalo & Katherine Coffman & Nicola Gennaioli & Andrei Shleifer, 2019. "Beliefs about Gender," American Economic Review, vol 109(3), pages 739-773.

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Journal Article: Beliefs about Gender (2019)
Working Paper: Beliefs about Gender (2016)
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