What explains the gender gap in high school dropout rates? Experimental and administrative evidence

A new gender gap has emerged in many societies: males lag behind in terms of educational outcomes. In a largely representative sample of Norwegian adolescents, we examine why males make different school choices than females and why they are more likely to drop out of high school. We exploit a unique data set, combining rich experimental data with high-quality administrative data, and study how family background and personal characteristics explain dropout rates, The paper provides three main findings. First, we show that both family background and personal characteristics are of great importance in explaining dropout, but they do not account for the observed gender difference. Second, we show that the gender difference in dropout rates appears both when the adolescents select into the college track and after they have started: girls are much more likely to choose the college track and to continue after they have started. Third, we show that very different processes guide the choices of the boys and the girls of whether to drop out from the college track. We argue that the findings have important ∗Department of Economics, NHH Norwegian School of Economics, 5045 Bergen, Norway. Emails: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. We would like to thank the municipal school authority in Bergen for their cooperation; Kristin Risvand Mo for administrative support; Atle Askeland, Bjørn Ivar Grøttå, and Sarah Marie Søiland for IT-support; and Eli Birgitte S. Bergsmark, Espen Bolghaug, Andreas Tufteland Engelsen, Kasper Thoring Fellkjær, Sebastian Fest, Ingar Haaland, Sigve Garsjø, Vi-Vi Ton Nu, Kristin Orset, Henrik Reigstad, Mari Sakkestad, Johanne Amundsen Wik, Kristina Øystese, and Silje Åsnes for research assistance. The project was financed by support from the Research Council of Norway, research grant 185831, and administered by The Choice Lab, Norwegian School of Economics.