Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP8690
Authors: Alison L. Booth; Lina Cardona Sosa; Patrick Nolen
Abstract: Single-sex classes within coeducational environments are likely to modify students' risk-taking attitudes in economically important ways. To test this, we designed a controlled experiment using first year college students who made choices over real-stakes lotteries at two distinct dates. Students were randomly assigned to classes of three types: all female, all male, and coeducational. They were not allowed to change group subsequently. We found that women are less likely to make risky choices than men at both dates. However, after eight weeks in a single-sex environment, women were significantly more likely to choose the lottery than their counterparts in coeducational groups. These results are robust to the inclusion of controls for IQ and for personality type, as well as to a number of sensitivity tests. Our findings suggest that observed gender differences in behaviour under uncertainty found in previous studies might partly reflect social learning rather than inherent gender traits.
Keywords: Cognitive Ability; Gender; Risk Preferences; Single-Sex Groups
JEL Codes: C9; C91; C92; D01; D80; J16; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Social learning (C92) | Changes in risk preferences (D11) |
| Single-sex environment (I24) | Increase in risk-taking behavior among women (D91) |
| Coeducational environment (I24) | Decrease in risk-taking behavior among women (D91) |
| Initial gender differences in risk aversion (D81) | Risk-taking behavior (D91) |
| Educational context (I21) | Modification of risk preferences (D11) |