IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cbt/econwp/16-07.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Maybe the Boys Just Like Economics More - The Gender Gap and the Role of Personality Type in Economics Education

Author

Listed:

Abstract

Do females achieve lower grades in economics than males? What role does personality type play in any difference if one exists? This study examines a cohort of first year students who all took Principles of Economics courses and completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator questionnaire at a large publically funded New Zealand university. I find that males do enjoy a comparative advantage in economics (or females a comparative disadvantage). This does not disappear when personality type is controlled for but does persist. Some personality types also achieve higher grades in their study than others. Most studies in the literature have tended to focus on economics but I am able to conduct the same analysis on the other first year courses that these students take. This enables a point of comparison allowing me to examine if gender and personality type effects are unique to economics or whether economics is actually no different to other disciplines.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Hickson, 2016. "Maybe the Boys Just Like Economics More - The Gender Gap and the Role of Personality Type in Economics Education," Working Papers in Economics 16/07, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    • Handle: RePEc:cbt:econwp:16/07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.canterbury.ac.nz/cbt/econwp/1607.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mary O. Borg & Stephen L. Shapiro, 1996. "Personality Type and Student Performance in Principles of Economics," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 3-25, January.
    2. Kenneth G. Elzinga & Daniel O. Melaugh, 2009. "35,000 Principles of Economics Students: Some Lessons Learned," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 76(1), pages 32-46, July.
    3. Kurtis J. Swope & Pamela M. Schmitt, 2006. "The Performance of Economics Graduates over the Entire Curriculum: The Determinants of Success," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 387-394, October.
    4. William B. Walstad & Denise Robson, 1997. "Differential Item Functioning and Male-Female Differences on Multiple-Choice Tests in Economics," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 155-171, June.
    5. Kenneth G. Elzinga & Daniel O. Melaugh, 2009. "35,000 Principles of Economics Students: Some Lessons Learned," Southern Economic Journal, Southern Economic Association, vol. 76(1), pages 32-46, July.
    6. Andrea L. Ziegert, 2000. "The Role of Personality Temperament and Student Learning in Principles of Economics: Further Evidence," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(4), pages 307-322, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Roger B. Butters & Carlos J. Asarta & Tammie J. Fischer, 2011. "Human Capital in The Classroom: The Role of Teacher Knowledge in Economic Literacy," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 56(2), pages 47-57, November.
    2. Marianne Johnson & Denise Robson & Sarinda Taengnoi, 2014. "A Meta-analysis of the Gender Gap in Performance in Collegiate Economics Courses," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 72(4), pages 436-459, October.
    3. Ann L. Owen, 2011. "Student Characteristics, Behavior, and Performance in Economics Classes," Chapters, in: Gail M. Hoyt & KimMarie McGoldrick (ed.), International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics, chapter 32, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Carlos J. Asarta & Roger B. Butters & Eric Thompson, 2013. "The Gender Question in Economic Education: Is it the Teacher or the Test?," Working Papers 13-12, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    5. Anthony Barilla & Darrell Parker & Chris Paul, 2005. "An Educational Note on Locus of Control and Personality Type in the Formation of Students' Attitudes Toward Economic Institutions," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 20(Spring 20), pages 192-202.
    6. Leonard C. Smith, 2009. "An Analysis Of The Impact Of Pedagogic Interventions In First‐Year Academic Development And Mainstream Courses In Microeconomics," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 77(1), pages 162-178, March.
    7. Stephen Hickson, 2010. "The Impact of Question Format in Principle of Economics Classes: Evidence from New Zealand," Working Papers in Economics 10/10, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    8. Butters, Roger & Asarta, Carlos & Thompson, Eric C., 2013. "The Production of Economic Knowledge in Urban and Rural Areas: The Role of Student, Teacher, and School Characteristics," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 45(01), pages 1-15, February.
    9. John Marangos, 2012. "The ‘discouraged-business-major’ hypothesis: policy implications," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 430-446, September.
    10. Ivo J. M. Arnold & Wietske Rowaan, 2014. "First-Year Study Success in Economics and Econometrics: The Role of Gender, Motivation, and Math Skills," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 25-35, March.
    11. Semeijn,J. & Velden,R.,Van der, 1999. "Aspects of learning style and labour market entry an explorative study," ROA Research Memorandum 004, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    12. Tim Kaiser & Luis Oberrauch & Günther Seeber, 2020. "Measuring economic competence of secondary school students in Germany," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(3-4), pages 227-242, August.
    13. Ferreira Lima, Luis Cristovao, 2012. "The determinants of the academic outcome: an Bayesian approach using a sample of economics students from the University of Brasilia, Brazil," MPRA Paper 44784, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Erlane K Ghani & Jamaliah Said & Kamaruzzaman Muhammad, 2012. "The Effect of Teaching Format, Students¡¯ Ability and Cognitive Effort on Accounting Students¡¯ Performance," International Journal of Learning and Development, Macrothink Institute, vol. 2(3), pages 81-98, June.
    15. Oskar Harmon & William Alpert & Joseph Histen, 2014. "Online Discussion and Learning Outcomes," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 20(1), pages 33-44, February.
    16. Edward M. Scahill, 2006. "Evaluation of the Training the Trainers Programme. What Did Trainers Know? What Did They Learn?," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 5(2), pages 9-28.
    17. Paul Dalziel, 2011. "Schumpeter's 'Vision' and the Teaching of Principles of Economics to Resource Students," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 10(2), pages 63-74.
    18. William Bosshardt & Neela Manage, 2011. "Does Calculus Help in Principles of Economics Courses? Estimates Using Matching Estimators," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 56(1), pages 29-37, May.
    19. Carlos J. Asarta & Roger B. Butters & Andrew Perumal, 2013. "Success in Economics Major: Is it Path Dependent?," Working Papers 13-11, University of Delaware, Department of Economics.
    20. Marianne Johnson & Denise Robson, 2008. "Clickers, Student Engagement and Performance in an Introductory Economics Course: a Cautionary Tale," Computers in Higher Education Economics Review, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 20(1), pages 4-12.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Principles of Economics; Gender; Personality Type; Myers-Briggs Type Indicator;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A22 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - Undergraduate

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cbt:econwp:16/07. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Albert Yee (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/decannz.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.