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Contribution Details

Type Working Paper
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Exposure to more female peers widens the gender gap in STEM participation
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Anne Ardila Brenøe
  • Ulf Zölitz
Language
  • English
Institution University of Zurich
Series Name Working paper series / Department of Economics
Number 285
ISSN 1664-7041
Number of Pages 46
Date 2018
Abstract Text This paper investigates how high school gender composition affects students’ participation in STEM college studies. Using Danish administrative data, we exploit idiosyncratic within-school variation in gender composition. We find that having a larger proportion of female peers reduces women’s probability of enrolling in and graduating from STEM programs. Men’s STEM participation increases with more female peers present. In the long run, women exposed to more female peers earn less because they (1) are less likely to work in STEM occupations, and (2) have more children. Our findings show that the school peer environment has lasting effects on occupational sorting and the gender wage gap.
Official URL http://www.econ.uzh.ch/static/wp/econwp285.pdf
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Keywords Gender, peer effects, STEM studies, Peer-Group, Geschlechtsunterschied, MINT-Fächer, MINT-Beruf, Lohnstruktur