Sex and Economics: The Paradox of Student Gender in China

Abstract

Motivated by a widely observed phenomenon in China that female college students outperform male students in economics and most of social science subjects, this paper examines gender differences in student performance in the intermediate microeconomics course in China. In stark contrast to what has been documented in the existing literature, which primarily focuses on developed countries and the U.S. in particular, I find that holding constant observed student characteristics, female students on average appear to earn higher scores than male students in China. I find that this is not because of female students’ ability, family background and other unobservable student characteristics. Instead, it is simply a result of female students exerting more effort than male students. I further explore a wide range of possible explanations for the gender difference in diligence, but find little support for any of the explanations. Despite this, my results indicate that there is no systematic discrimination against female students in the Chinese college education system.