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Why do boys and girls make different educational choices? The influence of expected earnings and test scores

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  • Rapoport, Benoît
  • Thibout, Claire

Abstract

Girls frequently choose educational pathways that lead to lower-paid jobs and less prestigious careers, despite performing as well as boys at school. Using a cohort of French pupils, we estimate a model of educational choices in which the anticipated cost of choosing a pathway depends on the skills in each subject and is allowed to differ between boys and girls. We show that choices in high school and in higher education are partly driven by expected earnings for boys but less for girls. Boys choose more often courses with a component in Sciences and competitive pathways. In high school, gender differences are higher for pupils at the same level in Mathematics and Humanities and are largely due to differences in marginal impact of test scores, which are lower for girls. In higher education, while partly driven by test scores, choices seem to largely depend on other gender differences (tastes, norms).

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  • Rapoport, Benoît & Thibout, Claire, 2018. "Why do boys and girls make different educational choices? The influence of expected earnings and test scores," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 205-229.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:62:y:2018:i:c:p:205-229
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2017.09.006
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    3. Joao Firmino & Luis C. Nunes & Silvia de Almeida & Susana Batista, 2020. "Student segregation across and within schools. The case of the Portuguese public school system," Nova SBE Working Paper Series wp633, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Nova School of Business and Economics.
    4. Friedman-Sokuler, Naomi & Justman, Moshe, 2020. "Gender, culture and STEM: Counter-intuitive patterns in Arab society," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    5. Justman, Moshe & Méndez, Susan J., 2018. "Gendered choices of STEM subjects for matriculation are not driven by prior differences in mathematical achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 282-297.
    6. Muhammad Zaheer Khan & Rusmawati Said & Nur Syazwani Mazlan & Norashidah Mohamed Nor, 2023. "Measuring the occupational segregation of males and females in Pakistan in a multigroup context," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Dominique Cappelletti & Maria Vittoria Levati & Matteo Ploner, 2022. "Math ability, gender stereotypes about math ability, and educational choices. Combining experimental and survey data," Working Papers 07/2022, University of Verona, Department of Economics.
    8. Eric Schuss, 2020. "Do Ethnic Networks Ameliorate Education–Occupation Mismatch?," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 34(4), pages 441-476, December.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Study choices; Salary wage differentials; Test scores; Gender stereotypes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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