Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics
Working Papers in Economics,
University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics
No 766: Gender Differences in Competitiveness: Experimental Evidence from China
Fredrik Carlsson (fredrik.carlsson@economics.gu.se), Elina Lampi (elina.lampi@economics.gu.se), Peter Martinsson (peter.martinsson@economics.gu.se) and Xiaojun Yang
Additional contact information
Fredrik Carlsson: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: P.O. Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG, Sweden
Elina Lampi: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: P.O. Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG, Sweden
Peter Martinsson: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: P.O. Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG, Sweden
Xiaojun Yang: School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
Abstract: Experimental evidence from both the lab and the field shows that women on average have a lower propensity to enter a competitive environment. In this paper, we investigate gender differences in competitiveness using a lab-in-the-field experiment and a subject pool consisting of Chinese adults. China provides an interesting environment to study in this regard since the country has promoted gender equality for a long time and the gender gap in earnings is small in a cross-country comparison. However, in many respects, China is still a patriarchal society. Our experimental results show that women perform equally well as men in a piece-rate task and significantly better in a competitive payment environment. Despite this, men are more than twice as likely to voluntarily choose a competitive environment. This gender difference cannot be explained by differences in risk preferences or overconfidence.
Keywords: Competition; Gender Difference; Experiments; China
JEL-codes: C91; D03; D10; I31; P30
21 pages, June 2019
Full text files
60399 HTML file Full text
Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Jessica Oscarsson (jessica.oscarsson@economics.gu.se)
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson (sune.karlsson@oru.se).
RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0766This page generated on 2024-11-14 18:33:28.