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Seoul Journal of Economics - Vol. 36 , No. 4
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[ Article ]
Seoul Journal of Economics - Vol. 36, No. 4, pp. 389-424
Abbreviation: SJE
ISSN: 1225-0279 (Print)
Print publication date 30 Nov 2023
Received 24 Oct 2023 Revised 10 Nov 2023 Accepted 10 Nov 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22904/sje.2023.36.4.002

Do single-sex schools make girls less interested in predominantly male majors?
Jihye Kam ; Yuseob Lee
Assistant Professor, Sungshin Women’s University, Department of Social Studies Education, South Korea (jkam@sungshin.ac.kr)
Assistant Professor, Harbin Institute of Technology-Shenzhen, School of Economics and Management, China (yuseoblee@hit.edu.cn)

JEL Classification: C39; I20; J16

Abstract

This study estimates the impact of single-sex schooling on the gender gap in students’ choice of college major. Potential endogeneity concerns are mitigated by homogeneous application behavior under the Boston mechanism-type assignment into high schools and college-major-specific admissions policies in South Korea. Single-sex schooling is found to widen the gender gap in the choice of predominantly male majors by attracting girls to genderbalanced majors and boys to predominantly male majors. Recruiting more male mathematics and science teachers, while maintaining the share of female teachers at a certain level, could encourage girls in single-sex schools to pursue predominantly male majors.

Keywords: College major choice, Gender gap, Single-sex schools, Teacher gender
Acknowledgments

This paper is based on, but with significant revised on, the third chapter, “Do single-sex schools make girls less interested in science and engineering majors?,” of Yuseob Lee’s doctoral dissertation titled “Three Essays in Labor Economics” (2018, Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison). We thank conference participants at the American Economic Association, Association for Education Finance and Policy, and Southern Economic Association for helpful comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are our own. Authors contributed equally to this paper.

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