No Gender Difference in Willingness to Compete When Competing against Self
- (pp. 136-40)
Abstract
We report on two experiments investigating whether there is a gender difference in the willingness to compete against oneself (self-competition), similar to what is found when competing against others (other-competition). In one laboratory and one online market experiment, involving a total of 1,200 participants, we replicate the gender-gap in willingness to other-compete but find no evidence of a gender difference in the willingness to self-compete. We explore the roles of risk and confidence and suggest that these factors can account for the different findings. Finally, we document that self-competition does no worse than other-competition in terms of performance boosting.Citation
Apicella, Coren L., Elif E. Demiral, and Johanna Mollerstrom. 2017. "No Gender Difference in Willingness to Compete When Competing against Self." American Economic Review, 107 (5): 136-40. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20171019Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination