Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP7198
Authors: Alison L. Booth; Patrick Nolen
Abstract: Women and men may differ in their propensity to choose a risky outcome because of innate preferences or because pressure to conform to gender-stereotypes encourages girls and boys to modify their innate preferences. Single-sex environments are likely to modify students' risk-taking preferences in economically important ways. To test this, we designed a controlled experiment in which subjects were given an opportunity to choose a risky outcome - a real-stakes gamble with a higher expected monetary value than the alternative outcome with a certain payoff - and in which the sensitivity of observed risk choices to environmental factors could be explored. The results of our real-stakes gamble show that gender differences in preferences for risk-taking are indeed sensitive to whether the girl attends a single-sex or coed school. Girls from single-sex schools are as likely to choose the real-stakes gamble as much as boys from either coed or single sex schools, and more likely than coed girls. Moreover, gender differences in preferences for risk-taking are sensitive to the gender mix of the experimental group, with girls being more likely to choose risky outcomes when assigned to all-girl groups. This suggests that observed gender differences in behaviour under uncertainty found in previous studies might reflect social learning rather than inherent gender traits.
Keywords: coeducation; controlled experiment; gender identity; risk attitudes; risk aversion; single-sex schooling
JEL Codes: C9; C91; C92; J16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| educational environment (I23) | gender differences in risk-taking preferences (D91) |
| single-sex schooling (I24) | risk aversion (D81) |
| gender composition of the experimental group (C90) | risk preferences (D81) |
| all-girl groups (J16) | risky outcomes (D81) |
| single-sex schools (I24) | likelihood of entering the lottery (H27) |