This paper examines how female and male examination performance are differentially affected by the degree of competitive pressure faced. Our setting is China's National College Entrance Exam (Gaokao) which is widely regarded as the world's most competitive exam. We show that compared to male...

Building on the much-celebrated sex-specific hypothesis on visceral responses, here we examine whether the well-replicated gender difference in competitiveness may be influenced by the visceral responses. In the first experiment, we show that the gender difference in competitiveness is partially...

In the stylized design of Niederle and Vesterlund (2007), subjects choose between a piece-rate and a tournament scheme after performing under both schemes. We examine whether the well-replicated gender difference in competitiveness elicited using this design may be influenced by the visceral...