| By: |
Peter Backus (University of Manchester& Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB));
María Cubel (Universitat de Barcelona);
Matej Guid (University of Ljubljana);
Santiago Sánchez-Pages (Universitat de Barcelona);
Enrique Lopez Manas (Google Developer Expert) |
| Abstract: |
There is a growing literature looking at how men and women respond differently
to competition. We contribute to this literature by studying gender
differences in performance in a high-stakes and male dominated competitive
environment, expert chess tournaments. Our findings show that women
underperform compared to men of the same ability and that the gender
composition of games drives this effect. Using within player variation in the
conditionally random gender of their opponent, we find that women earn
significantly worse outcomes against male opponents. We examine the mechanisms
through which this effect operates by using a unique measure of within game
quality of play. We find that the gender composition effect is driven by women
playing worse against men, rather than by men playing better against women.
The gender of the opponent does not affect a male player’s quality of play. We
also find that men persist longer against women before resigning. These
results suggest that the gender composition of competitions affects the
behavior of both men and women in ways that are detrimental to the performance
of women. Lastly, we study the effect of competitive pressure and find that
players’ quality of play deteriorates when stakes increase, though we find no
differential effect over the gender composition of games. |
| Keywords: |
Competition, Gender, Stereotype threat, Chess |
| JEL: |
D03 J16 J24 J70 L83 M50 |
| Date: |
2016 |
| URL: |
http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ieb:wpaper:doc2016-27&r=spo |