Competitive schools and the gender gap in the choice of field of study

Author / Creator

Landaud, Fanny, author

Available as

Online

Summary

French students have to choose a major field of study at the end of their first year of high school. This is a very important decision as students have little leeway to change their field of study ...

French students have to choose a major field of study at the end of their first year of high school. This is a very important decision as students have little leeway to change their field of study during the two last years of high school. Building on a RD design, this paper reveals that enrollment at a more selective high school, with higher-achieving peers, has no impact on boys' choices, but a very significant impact on girls' ones: they turn away from scientific fields and settle for less competitive and prestigious ones. Estimated effects are very large: an increase of about 10% of a SD in the ability level of high school peers induces a reduction of about 10 percentage points in the proportion of girls who choose to specialize in science. Effects are even larger for girls at the top of the ability distribution.

Show More