Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/265942 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 9907
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
We examine individual-level determinants of interest in STEM and analyze whether a digital web application for elementary-school children can increase children's interest in STEM with a specific focus on narrowing the gender gap. Coupling a randomized-controlled trial with experimental lab and survey data, we analyze the effect of the digital intervention and shed light on the mechanisms. We confirm the hypothesis that girls demonstrate a lower overall interest in STEM than boys. Moreover, girls are less competitive and exhibit less pronounced math confidence than boys at the baseline. Our treatment increases girls' interest in STEM and decreases the gender gap via an increase in STEM confidence. Our findings suggest that an easy-to-implement digital intervention has the potential to foster gender equality for young children and can potentially contribute to a reduction of gender inequalities in the labor market such as occupational sorting and the gender wage gap later in life.
Subjects: 
STEM
digital intervention
gender equality
field experiment
JEL: 
C93
D91
I24
J16
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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