Due to tightened safety regulation, some Italian soccer teams had to temporarily play home matches in empty stadiums in 2007. We exploit this event and find that referees exhibited home bias caused by social pressure when spectators were present.

Using a large running race in Sweden, this study shows that there are male-dominated environments in which the selection of women who participate are more likely to be confident/competitive and that, within this group, performance improves equally for both genders in absolute terms.