The origins of gender differences in competitiveness and earnings expectations

We aim to explore whether and how the social environment at a young age differentially influences the willingness to compete of girls and boys as well as their earnings expectations. In a sample of German adolescents, we first investigate how the competitive preferences of girls and boys vary with socioeconomic status (SES) and the preferences of their mothers. To elicit the competitiveness of the children and their mothers, we use a novel easy-to-use and validated measure developed by Buser et al. (2021). We then analyze the causal impact of a change to the social environment. More specifically, we examine whether giving low-SES children randomized access to a well-established and intensive mentoring program has an impact on individual willingness to compete as well as earnings expectations. For a period of about one year, treated children are provided with a mentor whose brief is to act as a role model and to enrich the social environment of the child. Volunteer mentors are predominantly university students and all girls receive a female mentor, thereby exposing low-SES girls to a successful female role model. Role models have been shown to be influential for the choices of young women, for example, in the context of education (Carlana, 2019; Porter and Serra, 2020; Breda et al., 2020). We therefore expect a positive impact of the mentoring intervention on the willingness to compete of low-SES girls, potentially resulting in a reduction in the gender gap. Moreover, there is mounting evidence that individual preferences for competition predict labor market outcomes (Reuben et al., 2015; Buser et al., 2021). Therefore, about six years after the end of the intervention, we administered a questionnaire in which we elicit adolescents' beliefs about their likely earnings at age 30.