Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/35755 
Year of Publication: 
2009
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4027
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
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.
Subjects: 
Tournament
piece-rate
gender
experiment
competitive behaviour
JEL: 
C91
C92
J16
J33
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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