Can Single-Sex Schooling Shape the Gender Differences in Response to Pressure? 

Abstract

A growing body of research explores gender differences in performance, particularly in response to high-stakes situations, as a factor contributing to labor market disparities. Prior studies (e.g., Azmat, 2016; Attali, 2011) suggest that females generally outperform males in exams, but their advantage diminishes in high-stakes settings, often interpreted as females “choking” and males “excelling” under pressure.

Using data from the Korean Youth Panel Survey, we analyze students' performance in both a zero-stakes mock exam and the high-stakes university entrance exam. Contrary to prior findings, we observe that Korean males exhibit a larger decline in performance under pressure than females. Exploiting the random assignment of students within districts, we find that this pattern is reversed for females attending all-girls schools—these students perform relatively better than males when stakes rise. This suggests that the educational environment plays a crucial role in shaping responses to pressure. The institutional features of the Korean system allow us to rule out selection effects, reinforcing the idea that gender differences in reaction to stakes are malleable and influenced by schooling context. Joint paper with Yarine Fawaz and Daniel Fernández-Kranz.