Events

Prof. Xiaoyue Shan
Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics
National University of Singapore

Does gender diversity benefit students? I answer this question with a field experiment in which 2,580 university students are randomly assigned to 645 study groups. The results show that group gender diversity significantly improves course performance: Being assigned to a gender-balanced group instead of a homogeneous one raises final grades by 0.14 standard deviations. Exploring the mechanisms, I find that students in more-diverse groups report increased social interactions and improved well-being. Gender diversity also reinforces gendered roles in group learning: While women ask more questions, men explain more. My findings highlight the value of increasing gender diversity in higher education.