Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/207220 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 7829
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
This paper investigates how high school gender composition affects students’ participation in STEM at college. Using Danish administrative data, we exploit idiosyncratic within-school variation in gender composition. We find that having a larger proportion of female peers reduces women’s probability of enrolling in and graduating from STEM programs. Men’s STEM participation increases with more female peers present. In the long run, women exposed to more female peers are less likely to work in STEM occupations, earn less, and have more children. Our findings show that the school peer environment has lasting effects on occupational sorting, the gender wage gap, and fertility.
Subjects: 
gender
peer effects
STEM studies
JEL: 
I21
J16
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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