Choosing to compete: how different are girls and boys?

Arbeitspapier

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.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 4027

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Individual ; Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Group Behavior ; Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination ; Compensation Packages; Payment Methods
• Thema: Tournament ; piece-rate ; gender ; experiment ; competitive behaviour ; Extensives Spiel ; Wettbewerb ; Geschlecht ; Frauenbildung ; Test ; Großbritannien

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Booth, Alison L. ; Nolen, Patrick J.
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (wo): Bonn
• (wann): 2009

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/35755
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-20090306204
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:43 MEZ