The Gender Gap in Mathematics: Evidence from a Middle-Income Country

32 Pages Posted: 1 Apr 2015

See all articles by Prashant Bharadwaj

Prashant Bharadwaj

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) - Department of Economics

Giacomo De Giorgi

University College London; NBER; Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of New York

David R. Hansen

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Christopher Neilson

New York University (NYU) - Leonard N. Stern School of Business; Princeton University - Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

Date Written: March 1, 2015

Abstract

Using a large administrative data set from Chile, we find that, on average, boys perform better than girls in mathematics. In this paper, we document several features of their relative performance. First, we note that the gender gap appears to increase with age (it doubles between fourth grade and eighth grade). Second, we test whether commonly proposed explanations such as parental background and investment in the child, unobserved ability, and classroom environment (including teacher gender) help explain a substantial portion of the gap. While none of these explanations help in explaining a large portion of the gender gap, we show that boys and girls differ significantly in perceptions about their own ability in math. Conditional on math scores, girls are much more likely to state that they dislike math, or find math difficult, compared to boys. We highlight differences in self-assessed ability as areas for future research that might lead to a better understanding of the gender gap in math.

Keywords: gender gap, education, middle-income

JEL Classification: I00, I25, J16

Suggested Citation

Bharadwaj, Prashant and De Giorgi, Giacomo and Hansen, David R. and Neilson, Christopher, The Gender Gap in Mathematics: Evidence from a Middle-Income Country (March 1, 2015). FRB of New York Staff Report No. 721, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2587275 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2587275

Prashant Bharadwaj

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) - Department of Economics ( email )

9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0508
United States

Giacomo De Giorgi (Contact Author)

University College London ( email )

Gower Street
London
United Kingdom

NBER ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Federal Reserve Banks - Federal Reserve Bank of New York ( email )

33 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10045
United States

David R. Hansen

University of Wisconsin-Madison ( email )

716 Langdon Street
Madison, WI 53706-1481
United States

Christopher Neilson

New York University (NYU) - Leonard N. Stern School of Business ( email )

44 West 4th Street
Suite 9-160
New York, NY NY 10012
United States

Princeton University - Princeton School of Public and International Affairs ( email )

Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544-1021
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
106
Abstract Views
1,039
Rank
543,736
PlumX Metrics