Gender differences in willingness to compete and answering multiple-choice questions—The role of age

Abstract

Using a large and unique data set of a German wide voluntary mathematical school competition, we examine at which age gender differences in the willingness to compete arise. We use the data of more than 1, 3 million pupils, ages 8 to 18. We find that the share of girls participating in the competition starts to decrease in the early teenage years (12–13). Furthermore, girls answer fewer multiple-choice questions than boys at all age levels. This is interesting as previous findings have identified skipping in multiple-choice tests as one reason for men outperforming women inter alia in university entrance examinations.