The economics behind the math gender gap: Colombian evidence on the role of sample selection.
Abstract The literature that has previously shown that boys outperform girls in math tests has failed to explain the underlying causes of the phenomenon. This math gender gap has been documented to vary across countries, and shown to grow as students advance through school. In this paper I suggest t...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Development Economics Vol. 135; pp. 368 - 392 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Elsevier B.V.
Nov2018
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=132577877&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 132577877 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 03043878 JDE jtl: Journal of Development Economics issn: 03043878 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Nov2018 vid: 135 pid: 1004 pub: Elsevier B.V. artinfo: ui: 132577877 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.08.007 ppf: 368 ppct: 24 formats: tig: atl: The economics behind the math gender gap: Colombian evidence on the role of sample selection. aug: au: Muñoz, Juan Sebastián affil: Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 214 David Kinley Hall, 1407 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801, USA su: Gender differences in education Labor supply Sampling theorem Mathematics students Mathematics education sug: subj: Gender differences in education Labor supply Temporary Help Services Sampling theorem Mathematics students Mathematics education keyword: Gender Mathematics Sample selection Gender Mathematics Sample selection ab: Abstract The literature that has previously shown that boys outperform girls in math tests has failed to explain the underlying causes of the phenomenon. This math gender gap has been documented to vary across countries, and shown to grow as students advance through school. In this paper I suggest that these patterns may be explained by sample selection caused by gender differences in schooling's opportunity costs, which lead lower-achieving males to drop out. I present and test the implications of a labor supply model that examines the opportunity cost of school attendance and, thereby, the observed math gender gap. Using an exogenous policy change, the launch of a conditional cash transfer program in Colombia, I estimate that sample selection explains between 50 percent and 60 percent of the gap. Estimates of non-parametric bounds show that selection in the lower quantiles of the male distribution explains a significant portion of the gap. Highlights • The math gender gap varies across countries and increases as students get older. • Gender differences in the opportunity costs of schooling explain these patterns. • The math gender gap is unexplained by observable attributes. • Results suggest that sample selection explains between 50% and 60% the math gender gap. • Attrition of low-achieving male students may explain a big portion of such gap. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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