Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-wdhn8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-17T07:09:35.642Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pricing competition: a new laboratory measure of gender differences in the willingness to compete

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

John Ifcher  and
Homa Zarghamee
John Ifcher*
Affiliation:
Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA
Homa Zarghamee*
Affiliation:
Barnard College, Columbia University, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027, USA
*
jifcher@scu.edu
hzargham@barnard.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Experiments have demonstrated that men are more willing to compete than women. We develop a new instrument to “price” willingness to compete. We find that men value a $2.00 winner-take-all payment significantly more (about $0.28 more) than women; and that women require a premium (about 40 %) to compete. Our new instrument is more sensitive than the traditional binary-choice instrument, and thus, enables us to identify relationships that are not identifiable using the traditional binary-choice instrument. We find that subjects who are the most willing to compete have high ability, higher GPA’s (men), and take more STEM courses (women).

Keywords

Willingness-to-competeCompetitivenessGender differencesRelative payoffPiece-rate equivalents

JEL classification

C91: Laboratory, Individual Behavior J24: Human Capital • Skills • Occupational Choice • Labor Productivity J16: Economics of Gender • Non-labor Discrimination
Type
Original Paper
Information
Experimental Economics , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 642 - 662
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 Economic Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-015-9458-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

References

Balafoutas, L, & Sutter, M (2012). Affirmative action policies promote women and do not harm efficiency in the laboratory. Science, 335(6068), 579–582. 10.1126/science.1211180CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertrand, M., & Hallock, K. F. (2001). The gender gap in top corporate jobs. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 55, 3–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buser, T, Niederle, M, & Oosterbeek, H (2014). Gender, competitiveness and career choices. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(3), 1409–1447. 10.1093/qje/qju009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cason, TN, Masters, WA, & Sheremeta, RM (2010). Entry into winner-take-all and proportional-prize contests: An experimental study. Journal of Public Economics, 94(9), 604–611. 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2010.05.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croson, R, & Gneezy, U (2009). Gender differences in preferences. Journal of Economic Literature, 47, 448–474. 10.1257/jel.47.2.448CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dargnies, M. P. (2009). Does team competition eliminate the gender gap in entry in competitive environments? CES Working Paper 2009.06.Google Scholar
Eckel, CC, & Grossman, PJ (2002). Sex differences and statistical stereotyping in attitudes toward financial risk. Evolution and Human Behavior, 23(4), 281–295. 10.1016/S1090-5138(02)00097-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischbacher, U (2007). z-Tree: Zurich toolbox for ready-made economic experiments. Experimental Economics, 10(2), 171–178. 10.1007/s10683-006-9159-4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gneezy, U., & Pietrasz, A. (2013). When half of the men are more competitive than all women. Working Paper.Google Scholar
Goldin, C, Katz, LF, & Kuziemko, I (2006). The homecoming of American college women: The reversal of the college gender gap. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 20(4), 133–156. 10.1257/jep.20.4.133CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grosse, N. D., & Riener, G. (2010). Explaining gender differences in competitiveness: Gender-task stereotypes. Jena Economic Research Papers 017.Google Scholar
Gupta, ND, Poulsen, A, & Villeval, MC (2013). Gender matching and competitiveness: Experimental evidence. Economic Inquiry, 51(1), 816–835. 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2011.00378.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Healy, A, & Pate, J (2011). Can teams help to close the gender competition gap?. The Economic Journal, 121(555), 1192–1204. 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2010.02409.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holt, CA, & Laury, SK (2002). Risk aversion and incentive effects. American Economic Review, 92(5), 1644–1655. 10.1257/000282802762024700CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ifcher, J, & Zarghamee, H (2014). Affect and overconfidence: Laboratory investigations. Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, 7(3), 125–150. 10.1037/npe0000022CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ifcher, J., & Zarghamee, H. (2015) Performing in a competitive environment and the willingness to compete: Is it necessary and sufficient for a gender gap? Working paper.Google Scholar
Kamas, L., & Preston, A. (2009). Social preferences, competitiveness and compensation: Are there gender differences? Working Paper.Google Scholar
Kamas, L, & Preston, A (2012). The importance of being confident; gender, career choice, and willingness to compete. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 83(1), 82–97. 10.1016/j.jebo.2011.06.013CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, JA, & Thornton, RJ (2007). Do new male and female college graduates receive unequal pay?. Journal of Human Resources, 42(1), 32–48. 10.3368/jhr.XLII.1.32CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niederle, M, Segal, C, & Vesterlund, L (2013). How costly is diversity? Affirmative action in light of gender differences in competitiveness. Management Science, 59(1), 1–16. 10.1287/mnsc.1120.1602CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niederle, M, & Vesterlund, L (2007). Do women shy away from competition? Do men compete too much?. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 122(3), 1067–1101. 10.1162/qjec.122.3.1067CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niederle, M, & Vesterlund, L (2011). Gender and competition. Annual Review of Economics, 3(1), 601–630. 10.1146/annurev-economics-111809-125122CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wozniak, D, Harbaugh, W, & Mayr, U (2014). The menstrual cycle and performance feedback alter gender differences in competitive choices. Journal of Labor Economics, 32(1), 161–198. 10.1086/673324CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Ifcher and Zarghamee supplementary material

Ifcher and Zarghamee supplementary material
Download Ifcher and Zarghamee supplementary material(File)
File 326.1 KB