Working Paper: NBER ID: w22641
Authors: Michael Baker; Kirsten Cornelson
Abstract: Sports participation is a leading environmental explanation of the male advantage in some spatial skills. We exploit the large increase in females’ high school sports participation due to Title IX to test this hypothesis. We relate Title IX induced increases in females’ sport participation to the spatial content of their occupational employment as captured by Dictionary of Occupational Titles codes, and a test of three dimensional spatial rotation. We find little evidence that this increase in sports participation had an impact on either of these measures.
Keywords: Title IX; female employment; spatial skills; sports participation; labor market
JEL Codes: I28; J16; J24
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Title IX-induced increases in female sports participation (Z22) | spatial content of women's employment (J21) |
| increase in female sports participation (Z22) | spatial aptitude of employment (C49) |
| increase in female sports participation (Z22) | depth perception of employment (J63) |
| increase in female sports participation (Z22) | educational attainment and labor market participation for women (J21) |