Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP17008
Authors: Armin Falk; Teodora Boneva; Thomas Buser; Fabian Kosse
Abstract: We present evidence on the role of the social environment for the development of gender differences in competitiveness and earnings expectations. First, we document that the gender gap in competitiveness and earnings expectations is more pronounced among adolescents with low socioeconomic status (SES). We further document that there is a positive association between the competitiveness of mothers and their daughters, but not between the competitiveness of mothers and their sons. Second, we show that a randomized mentoring intervention that exposes low-SES children to predominantly female role models causally affects girls' willingness to compete and narrows both the gender gap in competitiveness as well as the gender gap in earnings expectations. Together, the results highlight the importance of the social environment in shaping willingness to compete and earnings expectations at a young age.
Keywords: competitiveness; gender; socioeconomic status; inequality; earnings expectations
JEL Codes: I24; J16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Mothers' Competitiveness (J16) | Children's Competitiveness (D29) |
| Mentoring Intervention (C92) | Girls' Willingness to Compete (J16) |
| Mentoring Intervention (C92) | Gender Gap in Competitiveness (J16) |
| Mentoring Intervention (C92) | Earnings Expectations (D84) |