When Parents Decide: Gender Differences in Competitiveness

88 Pages Posted: 18 Jan 2022

See all articles by Jonas Tungodden

Jonas Tungodden

Pandora Media, Inc.

Alexander Willén

Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) - Department of Economics

Date Written: 2022

Abstract

Parents make important choices for their children in many areas of life, yet the empirical literature on this topic is scarce. We study parents’ competitiveness choices for their children by combining two large-scale artefactual field experiments with high-quality longitudinal administrative data. We document three main sets of findings. First, parents choose more competition for their sons than daughters. Second, this gender difference can largely be explained by parents’ beliefs about their children’s competitiveness preferences. Third, parents’ choices predict children's later-in-life educational outcomes. Taken together, these findings provide novel evidence on the role of parents in shaping children’s long-term outcomes.

Suggested Citation

Tungodden, Jonas and Willén, Alexander, When Parents Decide: Gender Differences in Competitiveness (2022). CESifo Working Paper No. 9516, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4009416 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4009416

Jonas Tungodden (Contact Author)

Pandora Media, Inc. ( email )

Alexander Willén

Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) - Department of Economics ( email )

Helleveien 30
N-5035 Bergen
Norway

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