DP6891 Performance Gender-Gap: Does Competition Matter?

Author(s): Evren Örs , Frédéric Palomino , Eloďc Peyrache

Publication Date: June 2008

Keyword(s): gender-gap , relative-performance evaluation , tournament

JEL(s): I29 , J16

Programme Areas: Labour Economics

Link to this Page: www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP6891.asp.asp

Using data from a natural experiment with high payoffs in education, we examine whether the competitive nature of tournament structure explains the performance gender-gap. We find that performance is statistically lower for women, the variance of performance is higher for men, and the tails of the performance distribution are significantly fatter for men. For the same participants in non-competitive settings with similar academic content, the performance of women first-order-stochastically dominates that of men. We reject differences in risk aversion and ability as reasons for performance gender-gap.