The Eff ect of Gender Equality on International Soccer Performance # 501

The working papers published in the Series constitute work in progress circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comments. Views expressed represent exclusively the authors' own opinions and do not necessarily refl ect those of the editors. Die Deutsche Bibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der deutschen National-bibliografi e; detaillierte bibliografi sche Daten sind im Internet über: Abstract In this paper, we propose a new estimation strategy that uses the variation in success between the male and the female national soccer team within a country to identify the causal impact of gender equality on women's soccer performance. In particular, we analyze whether within-country variations in labor force participation rates and life expectancies between the genders, which serve as measures for the country's gender equality, are able to explain diff erences in the international success of male and female national soccer teams. Our results reveal that diff erences in male and female labor force participation rates and life expectancies are able to explain the international soccer performance of female teams, but not that of male teams, suggesting that gender equality is an important driver of female sport success. RUB and RWI. – The authors are grateful to Thomas Bauer for helpful comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are our own. – All correspondence to: