[Online Appendix] [Replication Package]
[Online Appendix] [WP]
[WP]
Abstract: This paper uses data from coordinated application and admissions systems in Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, Finland, Greece, Spain, Sweden, Uganda, and Taiwan to document dierences in gender representation among talented students applying to STEM majors. These ten settings are very dierent in size, economic development, culture, gender norms, and geographic location. However, in all of them, university admission decisions rely on algorithms that allocate students to specific college-major combinations based on their academic performance when applying to university. We focus on students scoring in the top 10% of the university admission exam and show that female representation among STEM-major applicants varies from 22% in Taiwan to 46% in Sweden. In the contexts we study, these dierences can be driven either by gender gaps in academic performance at the time of application or by gender gaps in the programs that these top-scoring students rank in their application lists. While we find some significant variation in female representation among top 10% scores—32.3% in Uganda to 65.6% in Sweden—we find a remarkably stable gender gap in applications to STEM across settings— between 22 and 29 percentage points in all education systems, but China and Australia, where it reaches 37% and 16% respectively. These results indicate that i.) closing gaps in academic performance is not enough to eliminate inequality in college trajectories across gender groups and ii.) the gender gap in major choices does not significantly vary with economic development
(Draft coming soon)
Abstract: We exploit a randomized control trial intervention on the whole student population in Madrid to study gender differences in response to high pressure testing-environments, defined by whether a test is externally administered. In the trial, students were exposed to different levels of pressure while other factors, such as competition, stakes, and time pressure, remained constant. Our findings indicate that girls perform worse than boys in high-pressure test taking environments, particularly in subjects with strong stereotypes of female inabilities such as mathematics. A survey administered after each exam revealed that girls have a lower tolerance for pressure and lower incentive to exert effort under high-pressure conditions in mathematics but not in verbal. These findings can explain the increase in the gender gap in mathematics under high-pressure settings.
The effect of university field of study on civic behaviours ( with Adam Altmejd and Luis Cornago). [Pre-Analysis Plan]
The impact of regional migration on education and labor market outcomes (with Roberto Asmat and Nicolas Navarrete)
NOTE: Policy Reports are available upon request