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Overview

Year:: 2019
Contributor:: Alex Eble (author); Feng Hu (author)
Genre:: grey literature
Subject:: gender; belief formation; human capital; intergenerational transmission; persistence; behavioral economics; K-12 Education; Inequality; Multiple outcomes of education; Parents and communities; Race, ethnicity and culture

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Description

Abstract:: We study the transmission of beliefs about gender differences in math ability from adults to children and how this affects girls’ math performance relative to boys. We exploit randomly assigned variation in the proportion of a child’s middle school classmates whose parents believe boys are better than girls at learning math. An increase in exposure to peers whose parents report this belief increases a child’s likelihood of believing it, with similar effects for boys and girls and greater effects from peers of the same gender. This exposure also affects children’s perceived difficulty of math, aspirations, and academic performance, generating gains for boys and losses for girls. These effects are not driven by other sources of peer effects, such as peer cognitive ability, peer parent traits such as education and income, or the gender composition of the classroom.

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Use and Reproduction: In Copyright

Citation

Alex Eble, and Feng Hu, "How important are beliefs about gender differences in math ability? Transmission across generations and impacts on child outcomes" (2019). EdWorkingPapers.com Archive. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:956638/

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EdWorkingPapers.com Archive

The Annenberg Institute at Brown University has developed this national working paper series to provide public access to high-quality papers from multiple disciplines on a wide variety of topics related to education. EdWorkingPapers focuses particularly on research with strong implications …
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How important are beliefs about gender differences in math ability? Transmission across generations and impacts on child outcomes