Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/110111 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 8859
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We exploit a natural experiment based on the Italian promotion system for associate and full professor positions to investigate gender differences in the willingness to enter competition. Using data on about 42,000 professors and controlling for productivity and a number of individual and field characteristics, we find that females have a lower probability of applying for competition of about 4 percentage points. The determinants of this gap seem to be gender differences in risk-aversion and self-confidence and women's fear of discrimination: the lower tendency to enter competition is especially relevant for women in the lower tail of the distribution of scientific productivity and in fields in which productivity is not easily measurable; furthermore, women are less likely to apply for promotion in fields in which promotions of females in the past were rare.
Subjects: 
attitudes towards competition
gender gaps
risk-aversion
self-confidence
discrimination
academic promotions
natural experiment
JEL: 
J71
M51
J45
J16
D72
D78
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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