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Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis Vol. 60 No. 4 2025

Gender, Competition, and Performance: International Evidence

Kai Li; Qiyuan Peng; Rui Shen; Gabriel Wong

open access

Abstract

Using a hand-collected sample of 18,269 equity analysts from 42 countries over the period of 2004 to 2019, we establish an intriguing negative association between a country’s institutional/economic development and its female share of equity analysts. We show that, in individualistic countries only, there is no gender gap in analyst forecast accuracy. We further show that female analysts are more skilled and more likely to drop out when underperforming in individualistic countries compared to peers in collectivistic countries. The evidence supports our hypothesis that the national cultural value of individualism encourages women to make career choices consistent with their general aversion to competition.

DOI
10.1017/s0022109024000255
Volume
60
Issue
4
Pages
1686-1726
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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