Pedagogical practices and the gender gap in economics education

Abstract

Since the 1970s, economists have regularly documented that women tend to underperform otherwise comparable men in introductory economics courses. Hypotheses as to why this finding is so persistent often target economists' pedagogical practices. In this paper, we leverage the changes forced by the COVID‐19 pandemic to explore several hypotheses. Leveraging a sample of more than 3000 students enrolled in introductory micro‐ and introductory macroeconomics across seven semesters, we examine the interaction between gender and course modality, returns to effort, and the composition of the final grade. We find the size of the gender performance gap, as measured by course grade, fluctuated significantly across pre‐, during, and post‐pandemic semesters. We conclude this variation is not explained by course modality or student effort measures; instead, we argue that assessment strategy may drive much of the gender gap. This suggests the de‐emphasis of multiple‐choice exams in grade composition may go a significant way to closing the gender gap in introductory economics performance.