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Mind the Absent Gap: Gender-Specific Competitive Behavior in Nonprofessional Sports

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  • Anna Katharina Pikos
  • Alexander Straub

Abstract

There is wide evidence for gender differences in competitive behavior and performance under pressure from experimental economics and single-sex professional sports. We analyze these differences in a sport with direct gender competition. Our unique data consist of over 500,000 observations from around 11,000 German ninepin bowling games of which around 15% are from mixed-gender leagues. Men perform better against women on average, but this is fully explained by differences in ability. Our results are robust to instrumenting for opposite gender using the sex composition of the opponent team. Gender differences in tight situations do not seem to play a role.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Katharina Pikos & Alexander Straub, 2020. "Mind the Absent Gap: Gender-Specific Competitive Behavior in Nonprofessional Sports," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(3), pages 215-233, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:21:y:2020:i:3:p:215-233
    DOI: 10.1177/1527002519887414
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Pikos, Anna Katharina & Straub, Alexander, 2022. "Different but stable—Performance against the opposite sex across age," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Pikos, Anna Katharina & Straub, Alexander, 2021. "Different but stable - gender-specific competitive behaviour across age," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-689, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    3. René Böheim & Mario Lackner & Wilhelm Wagner, 2022. "Raising the Bar: Causal Evidence on Gender Differences in Risk-Taking From a Natural Experiment," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 23(4), pages 460-478, May.

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