Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP13681
Authors: Alison L. Booth; Ryohei Hayashi; Eiji Yamamura
Abstract: We investigate the evolution over time of gender differences in single-sex and mixed-sex tournaments, using field data from the Japanese Speedboat Racing Association (JSRA). The JSRA randomly assigned individuals into single-sex and mixed-sex races, enabling us to model learning in different environments. Our dataset comprises over one million person-race observations of men and women making their speedboat racing debut between 1997 and 2012. We find that the average debut-woman’s performance (measured by lane-changing and place-in-race) improves faster than debut-men’s in single-sex races, but more slowly than debut-men’s in mixed-sex races. For the average male racer, the opposite is true.
Keywords: peer effects; gender; competition; tournaments; experience; mixedsex; singlesex; random assignment
JEL Codes: J16; L83; M5
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| average debut woman's performance in singlesex races (J16) | average debut man's performance in singlesex races (C29) |
| women's lane changing performance increases with race participation in singlesex races (J16) | women's lane changing performance (J16) |
| men's performance improves faster in mixedsex races (J79) | men's performance (D29) |
| women start with less aggressiveness than men (J16) | gender gap in aggressiveness (J16) |
| gender gap in aggressiveness disappears over time (J16) | gender performance gap in place in race (J16) |