Speaker: Yi Chen, ShanghaiTech University

Time: 2024/10/25, 10:00-11:30 (Beijing Time)

Title:  Beyond the Scores: Understanding the Gender Gap in Access to Elite Universities in China

Venue: 106 Zhonghui Building

Abstract:

We have observed a longstanding phenomenon in China over the past two decades: the declining representation of women as they advance through the university hierarchy. Our analysis, based on administrative data from China’s college entrance exams from 1999 to 2003, shows that even when Chinese girls achieve the same scores as their male counterparts, they are 2.2\% less likely to attend elite universities. The trade-off is that they are also less likely to downgrade from their target universities. We highlight two factors explaining the gender gap. First, the list of elite universities (i.e., the Program 985) designated by the Chinese government disproportionately focuses on science and technology, which attracts more male students. We find strong evidence that girls are less likely to choose science and technology universities, even when accounting for their major choices within the school. Second, when confronted with high-stakes and high-risk decisions, such as choosing a university, girls tend to make more conservative choices. Supporting this explanation, we show that the gender gap in accessing elite universities is small under the post-exam submission mechanism, which has fewer information uncertainties than pre-exam submission.