Social Econ Blog

This is the finding of a fascinating experiment conducted by Uri Gneezy, Muriel Niederle, and Aldo Rustichini:

Even though the provision of equal opportunities for men and women has been a priority in many countries, large gender differences prevail in competitive high-ranking positions. Suggested explanations include discrimination and differences in preferences and human capital. In this paper we present experimental evidence in support of an additional factor: women may be less effective than men in competitive environments, even if they are able to perform similarly in noncompetitive environments. In a laboratory experiment we observe, as we increase the competitiveness of the environment, a significant increase in performance for men, but not for women. This results in a significant gender gap in performance in tournaments, while there is no gap when participants are paid according to piece rate. This effect is stronger when women have to compete against men than in single-sex competitive environments: this suggests that women may be able to perform in competitive environments per se.

An alum of this tutorial (who was also one of my 985 students), Lia Larson, replicated this experiment among elementary school children for her thesis. Here is her abstract:

Research suggests that women do not compete in mixed gender tournaments. This paper evaluates at what stage in development females begin to underperform in competitions by conducting an experiment on 354 1st-5th grade children. Evidence suggests that girls stop competing in mixed gender tournaments during the elementary school years. During 1st and 2nd grade, girls react similarly in competitions regardless of the gender composition of the group. In 3rd, 4th and 5th grade, however, there is evidence that while girls continue to compete in single sex tournaments, they exhibit reduced levels of effort when placed in tournaments with their male peers. Interestingly, pre-experiment self-rankings of the female students correlate with their actual performance in the tournament and girls involved in competitive sports have no decline in performance in mixed gender tournaments. Surprisingly, girls with the highest maze solving ability tended to be the most negatively affected by the presence of male competitors. Several possible explanations are offered for this change in female behavior, though definitive conclusions prove elusive.