Work in Progress:

2025.09-Now Emotion and Pro-Environmental Behaviour

2024.05-Now Exam and AI

2021.12-Now The Costs and Benefits of Being Cautious: Evidence from Gender Differences in Chinese College Entrance Examination

Yi Chen (ShanghaiTech University), Sikun Dou(Singapore Management University), Hongbin Li(Stanford University) and Roujing Wu

Presented at: the 8th China Center for Economic Research Summer Institute(2024), EEA-ESEM Rotterdam (2024), and the International SITES-GLO Conference 2024, AIEL – DSE Workshop(2025)(Poster Session).

Abstract & Brief

A large body of laboratory experiments has confirmed that women are more risk-averse than men. However, less is known about the real-world costs and benefits of being cautious. We explore this question by examining gender differences in school choices during the Chinese College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) in the early 2000s. During our study period, China employed a sequential admission mechanism, making the choice of a first-batch first-preference school particularly risky. If a student narrowly missed the cutoff for that school, they faced a high likelihood of being placed in a significantly less desirable school. We find consistent evidence that female students were more likely to avoid this risk by selecting a more conservative option as their first-preference choice. This strategy involves both costs and benefits. On the benefit side, given their test scores, female students were less likely to fail their target schools compared to male students. On the cost side, however, they were more often admitted to lower-quality schools and less desirable majors. These gender differences remain robust across a range of checks, including controls for preferences toward specific majors and types of schools. To further validate that these patterns are driven by differences in risk aversion, we exploit policy shifts in the timing of preference submissions—from before to after exam results were known—which reduced uncertainty. We find that reduced uncertainty narrows the gender gap across various outcomes.

Science Dissemination

              All disseminations are supported by International PhD College, Collegio Superiore, University of Bologna