Identifier: TDX:4470
Authors: Valentina Heghes, Cristina
Abstract:
This thesis comprises three distinct empirical studies, all unified by a common aim. The research has delved deeply into the multifaceted aspects of gender differences in school outcomes, with a central emphasis on dimensions such as, educational expectations/aspirations, occupational aspirations, or salary expectations among other measures. A sample of adolescents in Catalonia, Spain, was used to conduct the research. This dissertation makes noteworthy contributions to the literature on gender studies, birth order, economics of education, and labour economics in several key aspects. Firstly, in Chapter 2, from an economic perspective we empirically analyze the birth order effect across a wide spectrum of cognitive abilities, personality traits, parental involvement, and life expectations. Our findings illustrate a persistent negative birth-order pattern on the wide variety of outcomes. We also find that when looking from the perspective of gender, there are also important differences between boys and girls. In Chapters 3 and 4, we explore novel factors that have the potential to shape students’ salary expectations and occupational aspirations (entrepreneurial intentions). Moreover, we extended the traditional analysis of the gender gap by shedding light on its drivers. We find robust evidence of a gender gap in expected earnings and entrepreneurial intentions, with girls often finding themselves at a disadvantage. The Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition technique illustrates that the gender gap is largely explained by the covariates considered. Additionally, it has been identified the drivers of the gender gaps. Interestingly, in both empirical studies, we find that gender differences in masculine role models emerge as the most important covariate in explaining the gender gaps.
Repositori URV