Explaining cross-racial differences in the educational gender gap

Aucejo, Esteban (2013) Explaining cross-racial differences in the educational gender gap. CEP Discussion Papers (CEPDP1220). London School of Economics and Political Science. Centre for Economic Performance, London, UK.

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Abstract

The sizable gender gap in college enrolment, especially among African Americans, constitutes a puzzling empirical regularity that may have serious consequences on marriage markets, male labor force participation and the diversity of college campuses. For instance, only 35.7 percent of all African American undergraduate students were men in 2004. Reduced form results show that, while family background covariates cannot account for the observed gap, proxy measures for non-cognitive skills are crucial to explain it. Moreover, a sequential model of educational attainment indicates that males have actually higher preferences for education than females after controlling for latent factors (i.e. cognitive and non-cognitive skills). The model also shows that cognitive skills strongly affect the decision to move from one school level to the next, especially after finishing high school, but cannot account for disparities between genders. On the contrary, the substantial differences in the distribution of non-cognitive skills between males and females make these abilities critical to explain the gender gap in educational attainment across and within races.

Item Type:	Monograph (Discussion Paper)
Official URL:	http://cep.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/series.asp?...
Additional Information:	© 2013 The Author
Divisions:	Centre for Economic Performance
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races L Education > L Education (General)
JEL classification:	I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J15 - Economics of Minorities and Races; Non-labor Discrimination J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J16 - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
Date Deposited:	08 Aug 2013 11:09
Last Modified:	13 Sep 2024 20:24
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/51560

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