Gender Differences in the Willingness to Compete Emerge Early in Life and Persist

• Published in: Management science Vol. 61; no. 10; pp. 2339 - 2354
• Main Authors: Sutter, Matthias, Glätzle-Rützler, Daniela
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Linthicum INFORMS 01.10.2015; Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
• Subjects: Adolescent girls; Analysis; Attitudes; Band gap; Between-subjects design; children; competition; experiment; Female-male relations; Gender; Gender differences; Gender equity; gender gap; Kindergarten; Labor market; risk aversion; Task performance; teenagers; Willingness; Austria

Gender differences in the willingness to compete have been identified as one important factor in explaining gender differences in labor markets and within organizations. We present three experiments with a total of 1,570 subjects, ages three to 18 years, to investigate the origins of this gender gap...