Gender Differences in Competitiveness: Evidence from Educational Admission Reforms

This paper studies whether increased competition has adverse consequences for students' intrinsic motivation by studying an upper secondary admission reform in Norway. While earlier students were enrolled into their neighboring school, the new system introduces school choice, where admission is based on performance in lower secondary school. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that whereas the motivation for boys seems to be unaffected by the increased competition, there are adverse consequences on the motivation for girls.