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Cancelling out early age gender differences in competition: an analysis of policy interventions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Matthias Sutter ,
Daniela Glätzle-Rützler ,
Loukas Balafoutas  and
Simon Czermak
Matthias Sutter*
Affiliation:
University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Daniela Glätzle-Rützler*
Affiliation:
University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Loukas Balafoutas*
Affiliation:
University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Simon Czermak*
Affiliation:
Management Center Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
*
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
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Abstract

We study the willingness to compete of 588 children and teenagers aged ten to seventeen. We replicate the gender difference in tournament entry choices usually found in the literature for adults. We then show that policy interventions like quotas and preferential treatment help to close down the gender gap without leading to losses in efficiency, during or after a tournament. Given that differences in competitive behavior are prevalent from an early age, the application of interventions to promote females in competitions may be desirable already at early ages to promote equal chances for women on labor markets later on.

Keywords

TournamentsGender gapAffirmative actionExperimentChildren

JEL classification

D04: Microeconomic Policy: Formulation, Implementation, and Evaluation C91: Laboratory, Individual Behavior
Type
Original Paper
Information
Experimental Economics , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 412 - 432
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Economic Science Association

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Footnotes

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-015-9447-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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