Gender Gap in Performance under Competitive Pressure: Admissions to Czech Universities

Abstract

Do women perform worse than equally able men in stressful competitive settings? We ask this question for competitions with a high payoff—admissions to tuition-free selective universities. With data on an entire cohort of Czech students graduating from secondary schools and applying to universities, we show that, compared to men of similar general skills and subject-of-study preferences, women perform similarly well when competition is less intense, but perform substantially worse (are less likely to be admitted) when applying to very selective universities.