The State Street Mile: Age and Gender Differences in Competition Aversion in the Field

Garratt, Rodney; Weinberger, Catherine J.; Johnson, Nicholas

doi:10.1111/j.1465-7295.2011.00370.x

Cited by 55 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…However, using similar data from another running event (the ''Santa Barbara State Street Mile'' in the years 2002-2008), Garratt, Weinberger, and Johnson (2009) find exactly the opposite result: Female (as well as older male) athletes are less likely than young men to enter a competitive race with cash prizes.…”

Section: The (Declining?) Importance Of Physiological and Physical Prmentioning

confidence: 53%

Gender Differences in Competitive Orientations: Empirical Evidence from Ultramarathon Running

Frick

2011

Journal of Sports Economics

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A large body of literature documents the existence of a considerable and persistent gender gap in competitiveness. Using longitudinal data from ultramarathon running covering the period 2005-2009, I first confirm the findings of most previous studies by demonstrating that on average the women's races are indeed less competitive than the men's contests. Closer inspection of the data, however, reveals that the gender gap has considerably narrowed over the years. Moreover, for men as well as for women, an increase in the number of contestants is not only associated with a better average performance but also with a lower performance dispersion. These findings are not compatible with the hypothesis that gender differences in competitiveness reflect evolved biological differences and/or psychological predispositions. It is, however, compatible with two other (complementary rather than substitute) hypotheses: Due to changing sociocultural conditions boys and girls are today socialized similarly in many parts of the world and due to the increasing returns to success (i.e., identical prize money levels and distributions) women are nowadays motivated to train as hard as comparably talented men.

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Section: The (Declining?) Importance Of Physiological and Physical Prmentioning

confidence: 53%

Gender Differences in Competitive Orientations: Empirical Evidence from Ultramarathon Running

Frick

2011

Journal of Sports Economics

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“…in environments where women's abilities and motivations are unaffected by the performance of male contestants. The advantages of this kind of data are obvious: first, it comes from a natural setting somewhere between the simplicity of a laboratory experiment and the complexity and ambiguity of a particular labor market (Garratt et al, 2009). Second, the data covers a highly self-selected population of men and women where differences in motivations, aspirations, and riskpreferences are of minor importance only.…”

Section: Data and Descriptive Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Gender differences in competitiveness: Empirical evidence from professional distance running

Frick

2011

Labour Economics

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“…Two explanations suggest themselves. First, men may fail to understand the extent to which women dislike competition and attribute too much of the difference in behavior across gender to ability differences 3 For further supporting evidence, see, for instance, Gupta, Poulsen, and Villeval (2005), Garratt, Weinberger, and Johnson (2013), Vandegrift andYavas (2009), Cason, Masters, andSheremeta (2010), and Fletschner, Anderson, and Cullen (2010). However, Gneezy, Leonard, and List (2009) found the same effect in a traditional patriarchal society, but not in a matrilineal one, Charness and Villeval (2009) found no effect, Kamas and Preston (2012) found differences only for business majors, Wozniak, Harbaugh, and Mayr (2010) found that feedback about relative performance in a piece-rate stage reduces the gender entry gap, and Charness, Rustichini, and van de Ven (2012) found no effect when controlling for confidence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Differences and Dynamics in Competition: The Role of Luck

Gill¹,

Prowse

2011

SSRN Journal

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Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. In a real effort experiment with repeated competition we find striking differences in how the work effort of men and women responds to previous wins and losses. For women, losing per se is detrimental to productivity, but for men, a loss impacts negatively on productivity only when the prize at stake is big enough. Responses to luck are more persistent and explain more of the variation in behavior for women, and account for about half of the gender performance gap in our experiment. Our findings shed new light on why women may be less inclined to pursue competition-intensive careers. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may

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The State Street Mile: Age and Gender Differences in Competition Aversion in the Field

Abstract: Gender differences in "competitiveness," previously

Cited by 55 publications

References 24 publications

Gender Differences in Competitive Orientations: Empirical Evidence from Ultramarathon Running

Gender Differences in Competitive Orientations: Empirical Evidence from Ultramarathon Running

Gender differences in competitiveness: Empirical evidence from professional distance running

Gender Differences and Dynamics in Competition: The Role of Luck

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