Nudging gender desegregation: a field experiment on the causal effect of information barriers on gender inequalities in higher education

ABSTRACT

In this article, we propose and test a novel explanation for gender segregation in Higher Education that focuses on the misperceptions of economic returns to fields of study. We frame this explanation within the literature emphasizing the role of gender-stereotypical preferences and occupational plans, and we argue that counselling activities in school can play a crucial role in either reinforcing or countering the weight of these expressive mechanisms relative to more instrumental considerations involving occupational prospects of different fields. In particular, we suggest that the availability of reliable, ready-to-use information on these prospects enhances the probability that students, particularly females, opt for more rewarding fields. To test this argument, we present the results of a field experiment conducted in Italy that confronted high school seniors with detailed information concerning returns to tertiary education and field of study differentials, and we assess how girls and boys reacted to this counselling intervention.

KEYWORDS:

• Field experiment
• gender segregation
• higher education
• information
• returns to education

Acknowledgements

The data used for the analyses were collected in the context of the project ‘Family background, beliefs about education and participation in Higher Education: an experiment integrated with a longitudinal survey’, funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (funding ID: CUPE61J12000220001). The project is a joint collaboration of the universities of Trento (national coordinator: A. Schizzerotto; scientific director: C. Barone), Bologna (local coordinator: G. Gasperoni), Milano-Statale (local coordinator: G. Ballarino) and Salerno (local coordinator: J. Pratschke).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Carlo Barone is Full Professor of Sociology at Sciences Po. His research interests comprise research on social stratification, gender inequalities and decision-making processes in educational transitions.

Antonio Schizzerotto is Professor Emeritus of Sociology of the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Trento, and former Scientific Director of FBK-IRVAPP. He used to be a member of the governing committee and the scientific committee of various network and projects of excellence (EQUALSOC, ESeC, European Social Survey, CHANGEQUAL, Youth conditions and youth policies in the EU, DYNSOC). He is currently carrying out impact evaluations of education, labour market and anti-poverty policies.

Giulia Assirelli obtained her PhD at the Univerisity of Trento with a dissertation on labour market returns to tertiary education across European countries. She is currently post-doc research fellow at the Catholic University of Milan, where she collaborates in experimental projects in the field of education.

Giovanni Abbiati is Research Fellow at FBK-IRVAPP, a research institute aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of public policies. His main research interest is the evaluation of public policies in the field of education and social stratification research. His works have been published on Evaluation Review, Rationality and Society, Education Economics and European Sociological Review.

ORCID

Giovanni Abbiati http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0236-8787

Notes

1 In the second wave of the study, we asked control students whether they had received any specific information about the profitability of college degrees in relation to our project. Only 3.3% of control students answered positively. These internal validity checks are documented in more detail in Barone et al. (2017).

2 We measured college plans using two questions. First, we asked students whether they planned to attend college or to pursue vocational training. Second, we asked them in which field of study they would enrol. We combined these two questions into one single variable.

3 Of course, the models for this outcome are estimated using the whole sample of high school seniors, instead of the subsample of college students, because enrolment in these programs is not compatible with college attendance.