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Double in Trouble: Boys and Learning in School in Texas, North Carolina, and Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Antonio Ciccone
  • Federico Cingano
  • Walter Garcia-Fontes

Abstract

Children have been found to learn less in school when there are more boys in the classroom. We make two contributions to the literature. First, we revisit the empirical approach based on withinschool grade-level variation. We find that with grade retention (a feature of most school systems) the approach is subject to a selection bias that generates effects of boys on their classmates’ skills in the absence of any peer effects. We propose an alternative based on variation across enrollment cohorts. Second, we implement both approaches using data on around 3.6 million children in 14,000 primary schools in Texas, North Carolina, and Italy. We find adverse effects of boys on how much children learn in school using both the grade-level and the enrollment-cohort approach. The enrollment-cohort approach yields adverse effects on boys that are at least double the adverse effects on girls in all three school systems. By contrast, consistent with the selection bias we highlight, the grade-level approach yields similar adverse effects on boys and girls in the school systems with substantial grade retention.

Suggested Citation

  • Antonio Ciccone & Federico Cingano & Walter Garcia-Fontes, 2025. "Double in Trouble: Boys and Learning in School in Texas, North Carolina, and Italy," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2025_667, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
  • Handle: RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_667
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Peer effects in school; grade retention; selection bias;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of 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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