Relationship of gender differences in preferences to economic development and gender equality
Relationship of gender differences in preferences to economic development and gender equality
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DOI：
10.1126/science.aas9899
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发表时间：
2018-10-19
期刊：
影响因子：
56.9
通讯作者：
Hermle, Johannes
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Falk, Armin;Hermle, Johannes
在学术和公共辩论中，理解经济和社会领域性别差异的决定因素一直是人们感兴趣的问题。先前的研究表明，基本经济偏好的性别差异对于解释经济结果的性别差异很重要，比如职业选择、金融投资或教育决策等。然而，在了解性别偏好差异的来源及其变化方面仍然存在差距。我们对比并测试了两种假设，这两种假设对经济发展和性别平等的性别偏好差异的跨国关联做出了相反的预测。一方面，在较发达和性别平等的国家中出现的针对特定性别的社会作用的减弱可能会减轻男女之间偏好的差异。因此，人们会期望偏好的性别差异与较高水平的经济发展和性别平等（社会角色假设）负相关。另一方面，物质和社会资源的增加消除了性别中立的生存目标，从而为特定性别的野心和愿望创造了空间。此外，男女更平等地获得这些资源可能使妇女和男子能够独立地表达各自的偏好。因此，人们会期望偏好的性别差异与较高的经济发展水平和性别平等呈正相关（资源假设）。我们对这些相互矛盾的预测进行了测试，使用了76个代表性国家样本中的8万人的实验验证的风险意愿、耐心、利他主义、积极和消极互惠以及信任的数据。为了使数据具有地理代表性，数据集的选择包括所有大陆和广泛的文化和经济发展水平。总的来说，这些数据代表了世界人口和全球收入的90%左右。结果数据显示，在性别偏好方面存在显著的跨国差异。研究发现，性别差异与经济发展和性别平等呈正相关。这些关系分别适用于每种偏好，也适用于所有偏好差异的综合指数。从数量上看，该综合指数与人均对数GDP的相关性为0.67 (P< 0.0001)，与性别平等指数（性别平等的四个指数的联合测量）的相关性为0.56 （P< 0.0001）。为了分离经济发展和性别平等的单独影响，我们进行了条件分析，发现性别差异和对数人均GDP在性别平等指数条件下存在数量大且统计显著的关联，反之亦然。这些发现在几个验证测试中仍然是稳健的，例如考虑潜在的文化特定调查反应行为、聚集偏差和非线性关系。结论较高的经济发展水平和性别平等有利于国家间偏好的性别差异表现。我们的研究结果强调了物质和社会资源的可用性，以及性别平等地获得这些资源，在促进性别偏好的独立形成和表达方面的关键作用。各国偏好的性别差异及其与……的关系
INTRODUCTIONUnderstanding determinants of gender differences in economic and social domains has been of interest, both in academic and public debates. Previous research has shown that gender differences in fundamental economic preferences are important in explaining gender differences in economic outcomes, such as for occupational choice, financial investment, or educational decisions, among many others. However, gaps remain in understanding the sources of gender differences in preferences and their variation.RATIONALEWe contrasted and tested two hypotheses that make opposite predictions concerning the cross-country association of gender differences in preferences with economic development and gender equality. On one hand, the attenuation of gender-specific social roles that arises in more developed and gender-egalitarian countries may alleviate differences in preferences between women and men. As a consequence, one would expect gender differences in preferences to be negatively associated with higher levels of economic development and gender equality (social role hypothesis). On the other hand, greater availability of material and social resources removes the gender-neutral goal of subsistence, which creates the scope for gender-specific ambitions and desires. In addition, more gender-equal access to those resources may allow women and men to express preferences independently from each other. As a consequence, one would expect gender differences in preferences to be positively associated with higher levels of economic development and gender equality (resource hypothesis).We tested these competing predictions using data on experimentally validated measures of willingness to take risks, patience, altruism, positive and negative reciprocity, and trust for 80,000 individuals in 76 representative country samples. So that the data would be geographically representative, the dataset was chosen so as to include all continents and a broad range of cultures and economic development levels. In total, the data represent about 90% of both the world population and global income.RESULTSThe data revealed substantial cross-country variation in gender differences in preferences. Gender differences were found to be strongly positively associated with economic development as well as gender equality. These relationships held for each preference separately as well as for a summary index of differences in all preferences jointly. Quantitatively, this summary index exhibited correlations of 0.67 (P< 0.0001) with log GDP per capita and 0.56 (P< 0.0001) with a Gender Equality Index (a joint measure of four indices of gender equality), respectively. To isolate the separate impacts of economic development and gender equality, we conducted a conditional analysis, finding a quantitatively large and statistically significant association between gender differences and log GDP per capita conditional on the Gender Equality Index, and vice versa. These findings remained robust in several validation tests, such as accounting for potential culture-specific survey response behavior, aggregation bias, and nonlinear relationships.CONCLUSIONThe reported evidence indicates that higher levels of economic development and gender equality favor the manifestation of gender differences in preferences across countries. Our results highlight the critical role of availability of material and social resources, as well as gender-equal access to these resources, in facilitating the independent formation and expression of gender-specific preferences.Gender differences in preferences across countries and their association with …