Understanding the Impact of Gender and Migration Background on High-Ability Students’ Behavior: Exploring Behavioral Differences in Business, Law, and Engineering Students Throughout Their Academic Careers
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Using a large sample with detailed information on 32,296 high-ability business, law, and engineering students, we explore gender- and migration-related differences in behaviour to better understand the persistent under-representation of women and migrants in the executive suites of German companies. Since in this homogenous group of ‘high-achievers’, students are quite similar in their intellectual abilities, observable differences in behaviour can be mainly attributed to differences in gender- and migration-related preference patterns. We find that irrespective of migration background, men are more likely to pursue activities that increase their human capital, such as completing a doctorate. At the same time, women tend to engage in lower-level temporary jobs and complete their studies faster. In contrast, in this selective sample of high-ability students, migration background has a marginal effect on students’ behaviour only. Perhaps most surprising, we find that the behaviour of women with a migration background – who potentially face ‘double discrimination’– is not different from that of their male peers.
Authors: Lisa Beck-Werz, Bernd Frick, Thomas Fritz, Fabian Lensing
Institutions: Paderborn University, FH Aachen
Language: English
Subfield: Safety Research
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4413372378