This paper provides new evidence of gender differences in response to increased competition, focusing on important life tasks performed in a regular social environment. The analysis takes advantage of a major education reform in Ontario that exogenously increased competition for university grades. Comparing students pre-and post-reform using rich administrative data, I find that male average grades and the proportion of male students graduating `on time' increased relative to females. Further, the evidence indicates that these changes were due to increased relative effort rather than self-selection. The findings have implications for the delivery of education and incentive provision more generally.

the CEA Meeting and the LACEA Meeting for many helpful comments. We also thank Gustavo Katague, Derek Rice, Duangsuda Sopchokchai, Bogdan Urban, and Pedro Feitosa for their excellent research assistance. All remaining errors are ours.

Using the American General Social Survey covering the period 1978-2008, the authors investigate the link between union membership and perceived job insecurity. They find that overall, union members are 3.5 percentage points more likely than non-union members to feel insecure about their current jobs as well as future job prospects, especially during recessionary periods. This result is twice that in the manufacturing sector. By contrast, there is virtually no union effect on job insecurity in transportation, communication, and other services sectors. The use of instrumental-variables estimation methods and attitudinal proxy variables indicates that the positive correlation between union membership and perceived job insecurity is not due to self-selection, nor it is related to the decline of unionism in the United States.

Numerous studies suggest that the value of high school education is large for potential dropouts, yet we know much less about the benefits for students who will go on to post-secondary education. To help fill this gap I measure, using a recent Ontario high school reform, the value-added (in terms of university grades) of an extra year of high-school mathematics for university-bound students. The estimated benefit is small for these students: 2.3 points on a 100-point scale. This evidence helps to explain why the literature has found only modest effects of taking more mathematics in high school on wages. JEL classification: I21, I28 Mesurer les avantages de l'école secondaire pour lesétudiants qui se destinentà l'université : résultats pour une analyse de l'accumulation de capital humain dans des cours spécifiques. De nombreusesétudes suggèrent que la valeur de l'éducation secondaire est grande pour les décrocheurs potentiels, par contre on en sait beaucoup moins sur les avantages pour lesétudiants qui continuent leursétudes au niveau postsecondaire. Pour examiner cette question, on mesure la valeur ajoutée (en termes de notesà l'université) d'une année supplémentaire de mathématiques au secondaire pour lesétudiants qui vontà l'université a l'aide de données pour les cohortes différentes engendrées par une récente réforme en Ontario. Il semble que l'avantage est minime pour cesétudiants, 2.3 points sur uneéchelle de 100. Ces résultats aidentà expliquer pourquoi la littérature spécialisée n'a découvert I would like to thank

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