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Gender differences in overconfidence and decision-making in high-stakes competitions: Evidence from freediving contests

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Abstract

This study examines gender differences in overconfidence and decision-making in a high-stakes environment. Using data on more than 40,000 individual attempts from international freediving competitions, we provide evidence that women, on average, are less likely than men to overestimate their ability. This result is robust to different measures of overconfidence and can be partly explained by experience. There are no substantial gender differences on the intensive margin of overconfidence. In terms of performance, results suggest that women suffer more from overconfidence than men.

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  • Mario Lackner & Hendrik Sonnabend, 2020. "Gender differences in overconfidence and decision-making in high-stakes competitions: Evidence from freediving contests," Economics working papers 2020-16, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    • Handle: RePEc:jku:econwp:2020-16
    Note: English
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    overconfidence; gender; decision-making; competition; freediving;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • Z2 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics

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