Gender Effects in Assessment of Economic Knowledge and Understanding: Differences Among Undergraduate Business and Economics Students in Germany, Japan, and the United States

Abstract

Gender effects in large-scale assessments have become an increasingly important research area within and across countries. Yet few studies have linked differences in assessment results of male and female students in higher education to construct-relevant features of the target construct. This paper examines gender effects on students’ economic content knowledge with a focus on construct-relevant explanations. Moreover, we compare gender effects cross-nationally between Germany, Japan, and the United States. To assess economic content knowledge of higher education students, we used translated, adapted, and validated versions of the Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE, 4th ed.), an instrument that is commonly used internationally. We found gender effects on test scores in all three countries; effects were larger in Germany and the United States than in Japan. Gender effects were generally more pronounced on the numeracy subscale than on the literacy subscale, that is, male students had a greater edge over female students when items required calculations. In our conclusion, we discuss how numeracy and literacy items may tap different abilities.

Notes

On the comparability of economics curricula at the bachelor level in Germany, Japan, and the United States, see Brückner, Forster, Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, and Walstad (2015) and Förster et al. (2015).

In Germany, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research funded the WiwiKom project for the adaptation of an international test to assess knowledge of business and economics (see Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al., 2014).

Similar findings have been reported for German-speaking Switzerland (see Schumann, Eberle, & Oepke, 2013).

In Germany, the share of female students is somewhat higher in business studies and somewhat lower in economic studies, so the overall share of male and female students in business and economics is approximately equal (Federal Statistical Office, 2014).

In Japan, the share of male students and female students in business and economics also varies greatly among institutions of higher education. In general, the share of male students is even higher in economic degree courses than in business degree courses (MEXT, 2014; see also research questions, instrument, and sample).

Several other studies have examined test effects in different educational fields (e.g., Beller & Gafni, 2000; Ben-Shakhar & Sinai, 1991; Biggs, 1999; Bolger & Cellaghan, 1990; Connell, 2009; King & Flaake, 2005).

This included analyzing test and item scores according to gender testing for measurement invariance within and among countries. The results confirmed comparability of test scores (see, e.g., Förster et al., 2015).

The two parts of the test showed good reliability in all three countries, exceeding the value of 0.7 except for the microeconomics test in Japan, which had an acceptable value of α = 0.64 (for Germany, see Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, Förster, Schmidt, Brückner, & Beck, 2015; for Japan, see Yamaoka, Asano, & Abe, 2010; and for the United States, see Walstad et al., 2007).

The differentiation of economic content knowledge into the dimensions of microeconomics and macroeconomics was confirmed empirically, as the two-factor model showed a significantly better fit than the one-dimensional model (see Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al., 2015).

In ConQuest, we used marginal maximum likelihood estimation to calculate item and person parameters.

For a cross-national comparison of Germany and Japan, see Förster et al. (2015). For a comparison of Germany and the United States, see Brückner et al. (2015).