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Is Being Competitive Always an Advantage? Degrees of Competitiveness, Gender, and Premature Work Contract Termination

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  • Lüthi, Samuel

    (Swiss Co-ordination Center for Research in Education)

  • Wolter, Stefan C.

    (University of Bern)

Abstract

In this study, we examine the influence of competitiveness on the stability of labour relations using the example of premature employment and training contract termination in the apprenticeship education sector. The paper extends the small but growing evidence on the external relevance of competitiveness by analysing gender differences in the correlation between competitiveness and labour market success and whether these effects depend on how the students' propensity to compete is measured. By matching a large experimental dataset with administrative data identifying contract terminations, we find that both gender and test specification matter. While competitive men assigned to a difficult competitiveness task are less likely to drop out of the contract than non competitive men, there is no such effect observable for those assigned to the easier task. On the other hand, competitive women are more likely to drop out than non competitive women, irrespective of how competitiveness is measured.

Suggested Citation

  • Lüthi, Samuel & Wolter, Stefan C., 2021. "Is Being Competitive Always an Advantage? Degrees of Competitiveness, Gender, and Premature Work Contract Termination," IZA Discussion Papers 14675, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14675
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Booth, Alison & Nolen, Patrick, 2012. "Choosing to compete: How different are girls and boys?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 542-555.
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    3. Jeffrey A. Flory & Andreas Leibbrandt & John A. List, 2015. "Do Competitive Workplaces Deter Female Workers? A Large-Scale Natural Field Experiment on Job Entry Decisions," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 82(1), pages 122-155.
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    5. Sule Alan & Seda Ertac, 2019. "Mitigating the Gender Gap in the Willingness to Compete: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 17(4), pages 1147-1185.
    6. Rachel Croson & Uri Gneezy, 2009. "Gender Differences in Preferences," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(2), pages 448-474, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Thomas Buser & Noemi Peter & Stefan C. Wolter, 2022. "Willingness to compete, gender and career choices along the whole ability distribution," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(5), pages 1299-1326, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    competitiveness; non-cognitive skills; gender; apprenticeship;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C9 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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