A Gender Agenda: A Progress Report on Competitiveness

Abstract

I review the role of a new behavioral trait, competitiveness, on the gender agenda. I first describe how to measure competitiveness in the laboratory and show that gender differences in competitiveness are robust. I then establish the external economic relevance of the experimental measure of competitiveness: competitiveness correlates with education and labor market outcomes and can help account for gender differences therein. Finally, institutions can differ in the importance they place on competitiveness and hence can affect gender differences in economic outcomes. Exploring these institutional differences and their effects remains an open area of behavioral market design.