Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/69340 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7164
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
There is a large gender gap in advanced math coursework in high school that many believe exists because girls are discouraged from taking math courses. In this paper, we exploit an institutional change that reduced the costs of acquiring advanced high school math to determine if access is, in fact, the mechanism - in particular for girls at the top of the math ability distribution. By estimating marginal treatment effects of acquiring advanced math qualifications, we document substantial beneficial wage effects from encouraging even more females to opt for these qualifications. Our analysis suggests that the beneficial effect comes from accelerating graduation and attracting females to high-paid or traditionally male-dominated career tracks and to CEO positions. Our results may be reconciled with experimental and empirical evidence suggesting there is a pool of unexploited math talent among high ability girls that may be retrieved by changing the institutional set-up of math teaching.
Subjects: 
math
gender
career choice
high school curriculum
instrumental variable
JEL: 
I21
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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