• Media type: Report; E-Book
  • Title: Does Unfairness Hurt Women? The Effects of Losing Unfair Competitions
  • Contributor: Piasenti, Stefano [Author]; Valente, Marica [Author]; van Veldhuizen, Roel [Author]; Pfeifer, Gregor [Author]
  • imprint: Munich: Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), 2023
  • Language: English
  • Keywords: C90 ; online experiment ; D91 ; machine learning ; gender ; competitiveness ; fairness ; J16 ; C14
  • Origination:
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  • Description: How do men and women differ in their persistence after experiencing failure in a competitive environment? We tackle this question by combining a large online experiment (N=2,086) with machine learning. We find that when losing is unequivocally due to merit, both men and women exhibit a significant decrease in subsequent tournament entry. However, when the prior tournament is unfair, i.e., a loss is no longer necessarily based on merit, women are more discouraged than men. These results suggest that transparent meritocratic criteria may play a key role in preventing women from falling behind after experiencing a loss.
  • Access State: Open Access