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Seminar

Can competitiveness be nurtured?

Econometrics & Applied Microeconomics Seminar

Add to calendar 2022-10-03 11:00 2022-10-03 12:15 Europe/Rome Can competitiveness be nurtured? Seminar Room 3rd Floor Villa La Fonte YYYY-MM-DD
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When

03 October 2022

11:00 - 12:15 CEST

Where

Seminar Room 3rd Floor

Villa La Fonte

In this seminar, Emilia Del Bono (Essex University) will present the paper "Can competitiveness be nurtured?"

We investigate how the willingness to compete (competitiveness) can change in late teens based on a one-year exposure to the naturally varying gender composition of flatmates. We use panel data on a continuous measure of competitiveness in a setting with quasi-random assignment to flats. We find that (i) competitiveness is malleable; (ii) a greater share of female flatmates significantly reduces competitiveness among males; (iii) there is a significant positive differential effect for females, such that a greater share of female flatmates weakly increases competitiveness among females. We find suggestive evidence that the change in competitiveness is driven by a change in gender attitudes induced by living with a higher proportion of female flatmates. Finally, we examine the external relevance of our competitiveness measure. It is predictive of important life outcomes, including academic outcomes, life satisfaction, and earnings two years after graduation.

Co-authors: Adeline Delavande, Angus Holford and Patrick Nolen

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