Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/185710 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Paper No. 40
Publisher: 
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München und Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Collaborative Research Center Transregio 190 - Rationality and Competition, München und Berlin
Abstract: 
A recent literature emphasizes the importance of the gender gap in willingness to compete as a partial explanation for gender differences in labor market outcomes. However, whereas experiments investigating willingness to compete typically do so in anonymous environments, real world competitions often have a more public nature, which introduces potential social image concerns. If such image concerns are important, we should expect public observability to further exacerbate the gender gap. We test this prediction using a laboratory experiment that varies whether the decision to compete, and its outcome, is publicly observable. Across four different treatments, however, all treatment effects are close to zero. We conclude that the public observability of decisions and outcomes does not exert a significant impact on male or female willingness to compete, indicating that the role of social image concerns related to competitive decisions may be limited.
Subjects: 
gender differences
competitiveness
social image
experiment
JEL: 
C91
D03
J16
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
282.54 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.