Understanding the Impact of Female Role Models on Women's Choice to Major in Economics

This is the first (out of two) survey experiments with students in their last two years of high school in Mexico to understand how they perceive information about an economics (and other related fields) major when presented by a woman versus a man. Using the insights of this first experiment, we will run a hypothetical choice experiment (second survey, in a year from now), randomly varying both university/program characteristics and the gender of the role model to explore the mechanisms through which female role models may operate.

The current registration and pre-analysis plan involve only the first study. In this first study, we implement a simple online experiment targeting female participants who have not begun undergraduate studies, focusing on high-caliber students from Mexico's top 80-100 high schools.
Participants randomly receive one of two informational flyers about fictional universities offering programs in economics and related fields. The only difference will be the gender of the person highlighted—either a female or a male student (the role model).

Participants will then answer both open-ended and closed-ended questions about the characteristics they infer about the advertised university program. We will also collect basic socio-demographic data to approximate socioeconomic status (e.g., parental education) and ability (e.g., self-reported high school GPA).

This research design allows us to identify key attributes of the university/program associated to the gender of the role model. While past studies highlight factors like female faculty or career opportunities, we avoid assuming which attributes matter. Instead, we let the empirical evidence define the relevant characteristics, avoiding any reliance on our own prior beliefs.