Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/36885 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5015
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We study gender differences in the willingness to compete in a large-scale experiment with 1,035 children and teenagers, aged three to eighteen years. Using an easy math task for children older than eight years and a running task for the younger ones we find that boys are much more likely to enter a tournament than girls across the whole age spectrum considered here. This gender gap is observed already with three-year olds, indicating that gender differences in competitiveness emerge very early in life. The gap is robust to controlling for gender differences in risk attitudes and overconfidence.
Subjects: 
Competition
gender gap
experiment
children
teenagers
JEL: 
C91
D03
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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