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Gender differences in willingness to compete: the role of public observability

Author

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  • Thomas Buser
  • Eva Ranehill
  • Roel van Veldhuizen
Abstract
A recent literature emphasizes the importance of the gender gap in willingness to compete as a partial explanation for gender differences in labor market outcomes. However, whereas experiments investigating willingness to compete typically do so in anonymous environments, real world competitions often have a more public nature, which introduces potential social image concerns. If such image concerns are important, we should expect public observability to further exacerbate the gender gap. We test this prediction using a laboratory experiment that varies whether the decision to compete, and its outcome, is publicly observable. Across four different treatments, however, all treatment effects are close to zero. We conclude that the public observability of decisions and outcomes does not exert a gnificant impact on male or female willingness to compete, indicating that the role of social image concerns related to competitive decisions may be limited.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Buser & Eva Ranehill & Roel van Veldhuizen, 2017. "Gender differences in willingness to compete: the role of public observability," ECON - Working Papers 257, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
    • Handle: RePEc:zur:econwp:257
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    Cited by:

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    3. Christopher Roby, 2022. "Social Information and Gender Differences in Competitive Preferences," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 67(1), pages 24-45, March.
    4. Lénárd, Tünde & Horn, Dániel & Kiss, Hubert János, 2024. "Competition, confidence and gender: Shifting the focus from the overconfident to the realistic," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    5. Ortiz-Merchán, Silvia & Lee-Ocampo, María José & Cuéllar-Harker, Sebastián & Bolívar, Maria Fernanda & Barriga, Diana & Hernández, David & Villasmil, Alexander & Mantilla, César, 2024. "Don’t leave your kid unattended? Sex differences in children’s competitiveness in presence of their guardian," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    6. Buser, Thomas & van den Assem, Martijn J. & van Dolder, Dennie, 2023. "Gender and willingness to compete for high stakes," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 350-370.
    7. Loukas Balafoutas & Mongoljin Batsaikhan & Matthias Sutter, 2021. "Competitiveness of Entrepreneurs and Salaried Workers," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 069, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    8. Silva Goncalves, Juliana & van Veldhuizen, Roel, 2020. "Subjective Judgment and Gender Bias in Advice: Evidence from the Laboratory," Working Papers 2020:27, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    9. Dannenberg, Astrid & Diekert, Florian & Händel, Philipp, 2022. "The effects of social information and luck on risk behavior of small-scale fishers at Lake Victoria," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    10. Corduas, Marcella, 2022. "Gender differences in the perception of inflation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    11. Demiral, Elif E. & Mollerstrom, Johanna, 2024. "Competitiveness and Employability," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    12. Jeffrey A. Flory & Andreas Leibbrandt & Christina Rott & Olga Stoddard, 2021. "Increasing Workplace Diversity: Evidence from a Recruiting Experiment at a Fortune 500 Company," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 56(1), pages 73-92.
    13. Fernández-Duque, Mauricio & Hiscox, Michael J., 2023. "Altruistic or expected leadership? Laboratory evidence on what motivates pro-social influence," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    14. Jonas Tungodden & Alexander Willén, 2023. "When Parents Decide: Gender Differences in Competitiveness," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(3), pages 751-801.
    15. Andersson, Per A. & Erlandsson, Arvid & Västfjäll, Daniel & Tinghög, Gustav, 2020. "Prosocial and moral behavior under decision reveal in a public environment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    16. Shastry, Gauri Kartini & Shurchkov, Olga & Xia, Lingjun Lotus, 2020. "Luck or skill: How women and men react to noisy feedback," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    17. Rohde, Nicholas & Trivedi, Pravin & Tang, K.K. & Rao, Prasada, 2023. "Cognitive and non-cognitive traits and the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic inequality," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    18. Dilmaghani, Maryam, 2022. "Chess girls don’t cry: Gender composition of games and effort in competitions among the super-elite," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    19. Mourelatos, Evangelos & Krimpas, George & Giotopoulos, Konstantinos, 2022. "Sexual identity and Gender Gap in Leadership. A political intention experiment," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1187, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    20. María Ladrón de Guevara Rodríguez & Oscar David Marcenaro-Gutierrez & Luis Alejandro Lopez-Agudo, 2023. "On the Gender Gap of Soft-Skills: the Spanish Case," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(1), pages 167-197, February.
    21. Domínguez, José J., 2023. "Diversified committees in hiring processes: Lab evidence on group dynamics," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    22. Ahrens, Steffen & Bosch-Rosa, Ciril, 2019. "Heads We Both Win, Tails Only You Lose: the Effect of Limited Liability On Risk-Taking in Financial Decision Making," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 162, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    23. Ren, Yufei & Xiu, Lin & B. Hietapelto, Amy, 2022. "Dare to ask in front of others? Women initiating salary negotiations," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender differences; competitiveness; social image; experiment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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