Confidence Men? Evidence on Confidence and Gender among Top Economists

摘要

Several papers have found that women are less confident than men. We test whether the confidence gap persists for women who have reached the top of their careers. While we do find that a confidence gap persists, it is primarily driven by women being less confident when asked about topics on which they are not an expert. It is therefore difficult to state that women being less confident is always negative. It could be that women have an optimal level of confidence and adjust it depending on whether they are an expert, whereas men are consistently overconfident. We also look at measures of confidence and find that the confidence gap has two components. Women hold less extreme views and are also less confident in their views.