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Do Women Shy Away from Competition? Do Men Compete Too Much?

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Author Info
Muriel Niederle
Lise Vesterlund

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Abstract

We examine whether men and women of the same ability differ in their selection into a competitive environment. Participants in a laboratory experiment solve a real task, first under a noncompetitive piece rate and then a competitive tournament incentive scheme. Although there are no gender differences in performance, men select the tournament twice as much as women when choosing their compensation scheme for the next performance. While 73 percent of the men select the tournament, only 35 percent of the women make this choice. This gender gap in tournament entry is not explained by performance, and factors such as risk and feedback aversion only play a negligible role. Instead, the tournament-entry gap is driven by men being more overconfident and by gender differences in preferences for performing in a competition. The result is that women shy away from competition and men embrace it. Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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File URL: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/qjec.122.3.1067
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Article provided by MIT Press in its journal The Quarterly Journal of Economics.

Volume (Year): 122 (2007)
Issue (Month): 3 (08)
Pages: 1067-1101
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Handle: RePEc:tpr:qjecon:v:122:y:2007:i:3:p:1067-1101

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. James Andreoni & Lise Vesterlund, 2001. "Which Is The Fair Sex? Gender Differences In Altruism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 116(1), pages 293-312, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Miguel A. Costa-Gomes & Georg Weizsäcker, 2004. "Stated Beliefs and Play in Normal Form Games," Levine's Bibliography 122247000000000236, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Polachek, Solomon William, 1981. "Occupational Self-Selection: A Human Capital Approach to Sex Differences in Occupational Structure," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(1), pages 60-69, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Marianne Bertrand & Kevin F. Hallock, 2001. "The Gender gap in top corporate jobs," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 55(1), pages 3-21, October.
  5. Uri Gneezy & Muriel Niederle & Aldo Rustichini, 2003. "Performance In Competitive Environments: Gender Differences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 118(3), pages 1049-1074, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Marianne Bertrand & Kevin F. Hallock, 2000. "The Gender Gap in Top Corporate Jobs," NBER Working Papers 7931, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. B. Burcin Yurtoglu & Christine Zulehner, 2007. "The gender wage gap in top corporate jobs is still there," Vienna Economics Papers 0701, University of Vienna, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  2. James J. Choi & David Laibson & Brigitte C. Madrian, 2006. "Why Does the Law of One Price Fail? An Experiment on Index Mutual Funds," NBER Working Papers 12261, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. David L. Dickinson & Ronald L. Oaxaca, 2006. "Statistical Discrimination in Labor Markets: An Experimental Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 2305, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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  4. M. Daniele Paserman, 2007. "Gender Differences in Performance in Competitive Environments: Evidence from Professional Tennis Players," IZA Discussion Papers 2834, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Randolph Sloof & C. Mirjam van Praag, 2008. "The Effect of Noise in a Performance Measure on Work Motivation," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 08-074/1, Tinbergen Institute. [Downloadable!]
  6. Christian Grund & Dirk Sliwka, 2007. "Individual and Job-Based Determinants of Performance Appraisal: Evidence from Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 3017, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  7. Fernanda Rivas, 2006. "An experiment on corruption and gender," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 0806, Department of Economics - dECON. [Downloadable!]
  8. Lise Vesterlund & Muriel Niederle & Carmit Segal, 2008. "How Costly is Diversity? Affirmative Action in Light of Gender Differences in Competitiveness," Working Papers 342, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Economics, revised Mar 2008. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Sabrina Teyssier, 2008. "Les Modes de Rémunération comme Mécanismes
    Sélectifs de la Main d’oeuvre : Fondements Théoriques et Estimations Empiriques    ," Post-Print halshs-00303703_v1, HAL. [Downloadable!]
  10. T. Clifton Green & Narasimhan Jegadeesh & Yue Tang, 2007. "Gender and Job Performance: Evidence from Wall Street," NBER Working Papers 12897, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Paul A. Grout & In-Uck Park & Silvia Sonderegger, 2007. "An Economic Theory of the Glass Ceiling," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 07/183, Department of Economics, University of Bristol, UK. [Downloadable!]
  12. Stefania Albanesi & Claudia Olivetti, 2006. "Home Production, Market Production and the Gender Wage Gap: Incentives and Expectations," NBER Working Papers 12212, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Thomas Cornelißen & Christian Pfeifer, 2007. "The Impact of Participation in Sports on Educational Attainment : New Evidence from Germany," SOEPpapers 68, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). [Downloadable!]
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  14. Tor Eriksson & Anders Poulsen & Marie-Claire Villeval, 2008. "Feedback and Incentives : Experimental Evidence," Post-Print halshs-00276396_v1, HAL. [Downloadable!]
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  15. Cotton, Christopher & Price, Joseph, 2006. "The Hot Hand, Competitive Experience, and Performance Differences by Gender," MPRA Paper 1843, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  16. Sabrina Teyssier, 2008. "Experimental Evidence on Inequity Aversion and Self-Selection between Incentive Contracts," Post-Print halshs-00303727_v1, HAL. [Downloadable!]
  17. Catherine C. Eckel & Ragan Petrie, 2008. "Face Value," Experimental Economics Center Working Paper Series 2008-11, Experimental Economics Center, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University. [Downloadable!]
  18. Fernando Aguiar & Pablo Brañas-Garza & Natalia Jiménez & Luis Miller, 2007. "Are women expected to be more generous?," ThE Papers 07/08, Department of Economic Theory and Economic History of the University of Granada.. [Downloadable!]
  19. Kristin Kleinjans, 2008. "Do Gender Differences in Preferences for Competition Matter for Occupational Expectations?," Economics Working Papers 2008-09, School of Economics and Management, University of Aarhus. [Downloadable!]
  20. Sara de la Rica, 2007. "Segregación ocupacional y diferencias salariales por género en España: 1995-2002," Working Papers 2007-35, FEDEA. [Downloadable!]
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