Gender, Expectations, and Grades in Introductory Microeconomics at a US University
研究发现，在微观经济学入门课程中，女生的成绩预期低于男生，且这种预期部分自我实现；高中经济学经历对大学成绩有负面影响，对女生更明显；控制期望和高中经历后，性别本身的影响很小且不显著。
Previous studies have documented a gender gap in the study of economics in Canada, the UK, and the US. One important factor may be women's low expectations about their ability to succeed in economics courses. Women in our sample expect to do less well than men in an introductory microeconomics course, even after controlling for variables relating to family background, academic experience, and mathematics experience. These expectations are partly self-fulfilling, since expected grades have an important and positive effect on class performance. We also find that having taken an economics course in secondary school actually has a negative effect on performance. We observe this negative effect for women and men, but it is more pronounced for women. When we control for both expectations and secondary-school experience with economics, the independent effect of gender is small and insignificant.