Gender Differences in Economics Course-Taking and Majoring : Findings from an RCT

This paper reports on gender differences in responses to a randomized controlled trial that provided encouragement and information nudges to take subsequent economics courses and major in the subject for students enrolled in large introductory econ...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Halim, Daniel, Powers, Elizabeth T., Thornton, Rebecca
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:	GENDER ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION COLLEGE MAJOR RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIALS TERTIARY EDUCATION
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/350341626715358542/Gender-Differences-in-Economics-Course-Taking-and-Majoring-Findings-from-an-RCT http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36005

id	okr-10986-36005
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-360052021-07-23T05:11:17Z Gender Differences in Economics Course-Taking and Majoring : Findings from an RCT Halim, Daniel Powers, Elizabeth T. Thornton, Rebecca GENDER ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION COLLEGE MAJOR RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIALS TERTIARY EDUCATION This paper reports on gender differences in responses to a randomized controlled trial that provided encouragement and information nudges to take subsequent economics courses and major in the subject for students enrolled in large introductory economics classes at a large elite public university. Two treatments combined encouragement to major in economics with information on either financial or prosocial returns to the major. Men receiving either treatment were more likely to take an additional economics course, but not to major in economics. In contrast, the treatments were not estimated to significantly affect women’s course-taking and majoring. Two treatment mediators are also examined: expected versus actual grade and having a female teaching assistant. There were also differing effects of mediators on treatment responses for men and women. Women were more nudge-able to take another course when they received a better-than-expected introductory class grade, and men were more nudge-able to take another course when they had a female teaching assistant. 2021-07-22T13:39:11Z 2021-07-22T13:39:11Z 2021-07 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/350341626715358542/Gender-Differences-in-Economics-Course-Taking-and-Majoring-Findings-from-an-RCT http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36005 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9732 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	GENDER ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION COLLEGE MAJOR RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIALS TERTIARY EDUCATION
spellingShingle	GENDER ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION COLLEGE MAJOR RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIALS TERTIARY EDUCATION Halim, Daniel Powers, Elizabeth T. Thornton, Rebecca Gender Differences in Economics Course-Taking and Majoring : Findings from an RCT
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9732
description	This paper reports on gender differences in responses to a randomized controlled trial that provided encouragement and information nudges to take subsequent economics courses and major in the subject for students enrolled in large introductory economics classes at a large elite public university. Two treatments combined encouragement to major in economics with information on either financial or prosocial returns to the major. Men receiving either treatment were more likely to take an additional economics course, but not to major in economics. In contrast, the treatments were not estimated to significantly affect women’s course-taking and majoring. Two treatment mediators are also examined: expected versus actual grade and having a female teaching assistant. There were also differing effects of mediators on treatment responses for men and women. Women were more nudge-able to take another course when they received a better-than-expected introductory class grade, and men were more nudge-able to take another course when they had a female teaching assistant.
format	Working Paper
author	Halim, Daniel Powers, Elizabeth T. Thornton, Rebecca
author_facet	Halim, Daniel Powers, Elizabeth T. Thornton, Rebecca
author_sort	Halim, Daniel
title	Gender Differences in Economics Course-Taking and Majoring : Findings from an RCT
title_short	Gender Differences in Economics Course-Taking and Majoring : Findings from an RCT
title_full	Gender Differences in Economics Course-Taking and Majoring : Findings from an RCT
title_fullStr	Gender Differences in Economics Course-Taking and Majoring : Findings from an RCT
title_full_unstemmed	Gender Differences in Economics Course-Taking and Majoring : Findings from an RCT
title_sort	gender differences in economics course-taking and majoring : findings from an rct
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2021
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/350341626715358542/Gender-Differences-in-Economics-Course-Taking-and-Majoring-Findings-from-an-RCT http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36005
_version_	1764484229981274112

Gender Differences in Economics Course-Taking and Majoring : Findings from an RCT

Similar Items