Male-Female Differences in Economic Education: a Survey

Abstract

Many researchers have found that males and females perform differently on economics tests, with the females often achieving lower scores. This phenomenon has puzzled and troubled economic education specialists for well over a decade. In this article Siegfried summarizes many studies that have included student gender as a variable. This in itself would be a valuable contribution to the literature, but Siegfired goes further and deals with questions of the adequacy of research designs and other factors that must be taken into account. Thus, this piece should provide useful guidance to researchers who wish to include the gender variable in their designs.