Culture, Institutions, and the Gender Gap in Competitive Inclination : Evidence from the Communist Experiment in China

Can government policy change competitive preferences? This study compares behaviour in a controlled lab setting across three ethnic groups to examine the effect of communist institutional reforms that have radically changed the lives of women in China in the areas of marriage, education, work, and fertility on the gender gap in competitive inclination. Results suggest that exogenously imposed marriage reforms, in particular, may be effective in increasing female competitive inclination, although they do not eliminate the gender gap in all cultural contexts. Confounders are minimized by ensuring subjects are of the same age, live in the same small geographical area, have similar demographics and socioeconomic status, are genetically closely related, and attend the same high school where they have similar academic performance