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Gender Gap in Admission Performance under Competitive Pressure

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  • Stepan Jurajda
  • Daniel Munich

Abstract

Do women perform worse than equally able men in stressful competitive settings? We ask this question for competitions with a high payoff---admissions to tuition-free selective universities. With data on an entire cohort of Czech students graduating from secondary schools and applying to universities, we show that, compared to men of similar general skills and subject-of-study preferences, women do not shy away from applying to more competitive programs and perform similarly well when competition is less intense, but perform substantially worse (are less likely to be admitted) when applying to very selective universities. This comparison holds even when controlling for unobservable skills

Suggested Citation

  • Stepan Jurajda & Daniel Munich, 2008. "Gender Gap in Admission Performance under Competitive Pressure," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp371, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    • Handle: RePEc:cer:papers:wp371
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    File URL: http://www.cerge-ei.cz/pdf/wp/Wp371.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Nekby, Lena & Thoursie, Peter Skogman & Vahtrik, Lars, 2008. "Gender and self-selection into a competitive environment: Are women more overconfident than men?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 405-407, September.
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    4. Stepan Jurajda & Teodora Paligorova, 2006. "Female Managers and Their Wages in Central Europe," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp296, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
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    6. Štìpán Jurajda & Michal Franta, 2007. "Occupational Gender Segregation in the Czech Republic (in English)," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 57(5-6), pages 255-271, August.
    7. Victor Lavy, 2013. "Gender Differences in Market Competitiveness in a Real Workplace: Evidence from Performance‐based Pay Tournaments among Teachers," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 123(569), pages 540-573, June.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Josse Delfgaauw & Robert Dur & Joeri Sol & Willem Verbeke, 2013. "Tournament Incentives in the Field: Gender Differences in the Workplace," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(2), pages 305-326.
    2. Frick, Bernd, 2011. "Gender differences in competitiveness: Empirical evidence from professional distance running," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 389-398, June.
    3. Bernd Frick & Friedrich Scheel, 2013. "Gender differences in competitiveness: empirical evidence from 100m races," Chapters, in: Eva Marikova Leeds & Michael A. Leeds (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Women in Sports, chapter 14, pages 293-318, Edward Elgar Publishing.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender Gap in Performance; Test Anxiety; Competition; Admissions.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • I29 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Other

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