Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/161249 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 10626
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Gender differences in competitive behavior have been well documented by economists and other social scientists; however, the bulk of the research addresses competition with others and excludes other economically relevant competition that may contribute to the gender pay gap. In this paper, we ask: How does gender affect how individuals react to competition against themselves? In a laboratory experiment in which some subjects compete against others and some compete against themselves, we find women select into intrapersonal competition at significantly higher rates than interpersonal competition, the first such findings. We find perseverance or "grit" to be a poor predictor of interpersonal competition selection, but find familial effects such as parent's education and number of brothers to be correlated with competition selection.
Subjects: 
gender
competition
tournament
real effort
labor
JEL: 
C92
J16
M52
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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