Working Paper: NBER ID: w13923
Authors: Muriel Niederle; Carmit Segal; Lise Vesterlund
Abstract: Recent research documents that while men are eager to compete, women often shy away from competitive environments. A consequence is that few women enter and win competitions. Using experimental methods we examine how affirmative action affects competitive entry. We find that when women are guaranteed equal representation among winners, more women and fewer men enter competitions, and the response exceeds that predicted by changes in the probability of winning. An explanation for this response is that under affirmative action the probability of winning depends not only on one's rank relative to other group members, but also on one's rank within gender. Both beliefs on rank and attitudes towards competition change when moving to a more gender-specific competition. The changes in competitive entry have important implications when assessing the costs of affirmative action. Based on ex-ante tournament entry affirmative action is predicted to lower the performance requirement for women and thus result in reverse discrimination towards men. Interestingly this need not be the outcome when competitive entry is not payoff maximizing. The response in entry implies that it may not be necessary to lower the performance requirement for women to achieve a more diverse set of winners.
Keywords: Affirmative Action; Gender Differences; Competitiveness; Tournament Entry
JEL Codes: C91; J16; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Affirmative action (J78) | Entry of women into competitions (Z28) |
| Affirmative action (J78) | Entry of men into competitions (Z22) |
| Affirmative action (J78) | Changes in competitive behavior (L13) |
| Changes in probability of winning (C29) | Women's willingness to compete (J16) |
| Affirmative action (J78) | Altered beliefs about relative performance (D91) |
| Requirement for gender-specific winners (J16) | Dynamics of competition (L13) |
| Affirmative action (J78) | Increased female participation (J16) |
| Affirmative action (J78) | Decreased male participation (J22) |
| Increased female participation (J16) | Improved overall pool of candidates (D79) |
| Affirmative action (J78) | Lower performance thresholds for women (J16) |
| Affirmative action (J78) | Costs of affirmative action may be lower than anticipated (J78) |