Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/33530 
Year of Publication: 
2005
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 1833
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Male and female choices differ in many economic situations, e.g., on the labor market. This paper considers whether such differences are driven by different attitudes towards competition. In our experiment subjects choose between a tournament and a piece-rate pay scheme before performing a real task. Men choose the tournament significantly more often than women. Women are mainly influenced by their degree of risk aversion, but men are not. Men compete more against men than against women, but compete against women who are thought to compete. The behavior of men seems primarily to be influenced by social norms whose nature and origin we discuss.
Subjects: 
competition
tournament
piece rate
gender
risk-aversion
relative ability
experiment
JEL: 
C70
C91
J16
J24
J31
M52
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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