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Title: Explaining Cross-Racial Differences in the Educational Gender Gap
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1. Aucejo, Esteban M.
Explaining Cross-Racial Differences in the Educational Gender Gap
Discussion Paper No. 1220, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics, May 2013
Cohort(s): NLSY97
Publisher: Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics & Political Science
Keyword(s): College Enrollment; Educational Attainment; Gender Differences; Noncognitive Skills; Racial Differences

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The sizable gender gap in college enrollment, especially among African Americans, constitutes a puzzling empirical regularity that may have serious consequences on marriage markets, male labor force participation and the diversity of college campuses. For instance, only 35.7 percent of all African American undergraduate students were men in 2004. Reduced form results show that, while family background covariates cannot account for the observed gap, proxy measures for non-cognitive skills are crucial to explain it. Moreover, a sequential model of educational attainment indicates that males have actually higher preferences for education than females after controlling for latent factors (i.e. cognitive and non-cognitive skills). The model also shows that cognitive skills strongly affect the decision to move from one school level to the next, especially after finishing high school, but cannot account for disparities between genders. On the contrary, the substantial differences in the distribution of non-cognitive skills between males and females make these abilities critical to explain the gender gap in educational attainment across and within races. [Paper also presented at the Consumer Analyst Group Europe (CAGE) 2014 Annual Conference, London, March 2014.]
Bibliography Citation
Aucejo, Esteban M. "Explaining Cross-Racial Differences in the Educational Gender Gap." Discussion Paper No. 1220, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics, May 2013.