TY - JOUR
T1 - Gender gap under pressure
T2 - Evidence from China's national college entrance examination
AU - Cai, Xiqian
AU - Lu, Yi
AU - Pan, Jessica
AU - Zhong, Songfa
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank seminar participants at the University of Maryland, McMaster University, National University of Singapore, Northwestern University, Ts-inghua University, Xiamen University, Trans-Pacific Labor Seminar, and the SOLE/EALE meetings for helpful comments. X.C. acknowledges the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (project code 71703133).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
PY - 2019/5/1
Y1 - 2019/5/1
N2 - We examine gender differences in the response to competitive pressure using data from the most competitive entrance exam—China's Gaokao. Compared to male students, females underperform on the competitive and high-stakes Gaokao, relative to their performance on the low-stakes mock examination. Moreover, women's performance suffers more than men's in response to negative performance shocks in an earlier exam on the same day. These effects are more pronounced for subgroups of students where the stakes matter more. Overall, these findings appear to be best explained by women's lower tolerance for pressure and weaker incentives to do well in high-stakes settings.
AB - We examine gender differences in the response to competitive pressure using data from the most competitive entrance exam—China's Gaokao. Compared to male students, females underperform on the competitive and high-stakes Gaokao, relative to their performance on the low-stakes mock examination. Moreover, women's performance suffers more than men's in response to negative performance shocks in an earlier exam on the same day. These effects are more pronounced for subgroups of students where the stakes matter more. Overall, these findings appear to be best explained by women's lower tolerance for pressure and weaker incentives to do well in high-stakes settings.
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U2 - 10.1162/rest_a_00749
DO - 10.1162/rest_a_00749
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85064711420
SN - 0034-6535
VL - 101
SP - 249
EP - 263
JO - Review of Economics and Statistics
JF - Review of Economics and Statistics
IS - 2
ER -