The Formation of Competitive Preferences

37 Pages Posted: 29 Nov 2021

See all articles by Åshild A. Johnsen

Åshild A. Johnsen

Oslo and Akershus University College - Oslo Business School

Henning Finseraas

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Torbjørn Hanson

FFI Kjeller

Andreas Kotsadam

University of Oslo - Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research

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Abstract

Men are more competitive than women, but we do not know how stable competitive preferences are. We conduct a pre-registered data collection in the Norwegian Armed Forces, a traditionally male environment, using survey measures of competitiveness that are known to be correlated with competitive behavior in the lab. We find that there is selection into the environment but that there is still a gender difference at baseline. We further find that the competitive preferences become stronger for both women and men over a period of eight weeks. The changes are large enough to eliminate the initial gender gap if only women had been exposed to the setting.

Keywords: Competitiveness, Gender, Endogenous preferences

Suggested Citation

Johnsen, Åshild A. and Finseraas, Henning and Hanson, Torbjørn and Kotsadam, Andreas, The Formation of Competitive Preferences. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3973657 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3973657

Åshild A. Johnsen (Contact Author)

Oslo and Akershus University College - Oslo Business School ( email )

Pilestredet 35
Oslo, 0167
Norway

Henning Finseraas

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) ( email )

Høgskoleringen
Trondheim NO-7491, 7491
Norway

Torbjørn Hanson

FFI Kjeller ( email )

Norway

Andreas Kotsadam

University of Oslo - Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research ( email )

Gaustadalleen 21
N-0317 Oslo
Norway

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