We study the impact of the gender composition of a scoreboard on the persistence and performance of players in an online game. Players were randomly selected into eight groups, defined along two dimensions: they saw high or average scores on a scoreboard (score level), and within each of these, they saw either 3 male, 2 male and one female, 1 male and 2 female, or 3 female names associated with the scores (gender composition). Based on 1140 participants, we find that males are generally less responsive to performance information on other participants. Compared to the baseline of all male names on the scoreboard, females play fewer games when they see only female names, but more games when they see mixed gender names with high scores. Their performance (best score) increases significantly when they see at least one female name and high scores. This result is in line with the importance of female-specific reference points – or role models – in encouraging females’ participation and higher performance in competitive settings. It supports the use of policies aimed at providing these, such as the introduction of female role models and the public acknowledgement of high performing females.

Evidence of the relationship between temperature during pregnancy and human embryo mortality is limited. Most importantly, the literature lacks causal estimations and studies on early pregnancy losses. Here, we estimate the impact of early pregnancy temperature exposure on the clinically unobserved pregnancy loss rate. We use administrative data of clinically observed pregnancies from more than three decades for Hungary. We apply an empirical approach that allows us to infer the impact of temperature on the clinically unobserved pregnancy loss rate from the estimated effects on the clinically observed conception rate. The results show that exposure to hot temperatures during the first few weeks after the conception week increases the clinically unobserved pregnancy loss rate, whereas exposure to colder temperatures seems to decrease it. Importantly, the temperature-induced changes represent changes in the total number of pregnancy losses rather than a compositional change between clinically observed and clinically unobserved pregnancy losses.

In this study, we estimate unadjusted and adjusted gender gap in time preference, risk attitudes, altruism, trust, trustworthiness, cooperation and competitiveness using data on 1088 high-school students from 53 classes. These data, collected by running incentivized experiments in Hungarian classrooms, are linked to an administrative data source on the students’ standardized test scores, grades and family background. We find that after taking into account class fixed effects, females are significantly more altruistic (both with classmates and schoolmates), but are less present-biased, less risk tolerant, less trusting, less trustworthy and less competitive than males. At the same time we do not observe significant gender differences in patience, time inconsistency and cooperation at the 5% significance level. We also show that these initial gender differences do not change even if we control for age, family background, cognitive skills and school grades in a regression framework. Moreover, the gender gap also remains in all but one of these preferences even if we control for the other preference domains, suggesting that only risk preferences are confounded by the other preferences, at least as the gender gap in these preferences is concerned.

There is significant heterogeneity in actual skill use within occupations even though occupations are differentiated by the tasks workers should perform during work. Using data on 12 countries which are available both in the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies survey and International Social Survey Program, we show that women use their cognitive skills less than men even within the same occupation. The gap in skill intensity cannot be explained by differences in worker characteristics or in cognitive skills. Instead, we show that living in a partnership significantly increases the skill use of men compared with women. We argue that having a partner affects skill use through time allocation as the gender penalty of partnered women is halved once we control for working hours and hours spent on housework. Finally, we do not find evidence of workplace discrimination against women.

We study gender differences in the impacts of competition and subjective feedback, using an online game with pop-up texts and graphics as treatments. We define 8 groups: players see a Top 10 leaderboard or not (competitiveness), and within these, they receive no feedback, supportive feedback, rewarding feedback, or „trash talk” (feedback type). Based on 5191 participants, we find that competition only increases the performance of males. However, when it is combined with supportive feedback, the performance of females also increases. This points to individualized feedback as a potential tool for decreasing gender gaps in competitive settings such as STEM fields.

Az ingázással töltött idő hatással lehet a munkakínálatra és nagymértékben befolyásolja az egyén jólétét. Jelen tanulmányunk egyik legjelentősebb eredménye, hogy míg a nemzetközi irodalom szerint a férfiak és a nők ingázása közötti időben mutatkozó különbség stabil, addig Magyarországon a vizsgált időszakban ez nem volt igaz: az adatok arra engednek következtetni, hogy a nők egyre jobban felzárkóztak a férfiakhoz mind a foglalkoztatás esélyében, mind az ingázási időben, illetve a megtett távolságban. Számos egyéni, valamint a helyi munkaerőpiacot jellemző változó hatását vizsgáltuk, ám eredményeink szerint a lakóhely földrajzi elhelyezkedése lényegesen nagyobb hatással bír az ingázási időre, mint bármelyik egyéni szintű változó (kivéve a foglalkozás). A Közép-magyarországi régióban lakókhoz képest az ország bármelyik másik régiójában lakók napi 17–30 perccel rövidebb ingázási idővel számolhatnak, ami komoly kihatással lehet az ingázás társadalmi költségeire és jóléti hatásaira.

We conduct two waves (W1 and W2) of an unincentivized online survey to measure the change in altruism of primary school students (N=983) toward classmates and schoolmates during the school closures due to COVID-19. The W1 responses arrived, on average, after 39 days of online education, while W2 responses arrived, on average, 31 days after W1. There is a small, but insignificant decline in generosity both towards classmates and schoolmates between waves. Students with better cognitive abilities are less likely to become selfish toward schoolmates.

We study the relationship between locus of control (LoC) and human capital investment decisions in the adolescence, using PDS lasso to exploit high-dimensional data. While LoC is not significantly associated with graduation from high school once we use exogenous controls, it correlates strongly with dropout age and college attendance even if we take into account predetermined variables and cognitive abilities, and it exhibits a significant positive relationship with plans to apply to college even if we control for potentially endogenous variables.

We find that effort is an important conduit through which LoC operates and it is different from the expectation channel that has been already documented in the literature. The associations are heterogenous: LoC has a significant association with dropout age, high school graduation and college application plans in low-SES families, and with college attendance in mid-SES families. These heterogenous relations are in a large part determined by parental preferences and financial constraints.

Contact theory and conflict theory offer sharply conflicting predictions about the effects of interethnic exposure on prejudice. Contact theory predicts that close collaborative contact under conditions of equal status causes a reduction in inter-ethnic prejudice. By contrast, conflict theory predicts that shallow or competitive exposure causes an increase in inter-ethnic antipathy. Both theories are backed by rigorous field-experimental evidence. However, much of this evidence tests each theory under arguably extreme conditions. Therefore, the boundaries of the scope conditions for contact and conflict theory remain unclear: where is the line between close versus shallow, or collaborative versus competitive, inter-ethnic exposures? We test the consequences of inter-ethnic exposure in a natural and non-extreme setting by executing a large, well-powered, and pre-registered randomized field experiment on inter-ethnic discrimination in 40 Hungarian schools. We show that neither manipulating the closeness of interethnic contact within classrooms, nor variation in inter-ethnic exposure across classrooms, has an effect on non- Roma students’ inter-ethnic discrimination. These findings suggest that inter-ethnic contact may be neutral with respect to discrimination in many everyday settings, thus failing both to fulfill the hopes of contact theory and to actualize the concerns of conflict theory.

Can outside interventions foster socio-culturally diverse friendships? We executed a large field experiment that randomized the seating charts of 182 primary-school classrooms (N=2,996 students) for the duration of one semester. We found that being seated next to each other increased the probability of a mutual friendship from 15% to 22% on average. Furthermore, induced proximity increased the latent propensity toward friendship equally for all students, regardless of students’ dyadic similarity with respect to educational achievement, gender, and ethnicity. However, the probability of a manifest friendship increased more among similar than among dissimilar students. Our findings demonstrate that a scalable light-touch intervention can affect face-to-face networks and foster diverse friendships in groups that already know each other, but they also highlight that transgressing boundaries defined by ethnicity and gender remains an uphill battle.

This article explores dilemmas, problems and success factors of rural tourism and gentrification in the context of territorial development through two Hungarian case studies. A new analytical approach is developed, based on parallel perspectives in economic, social and cultural dimensions, often becoming split realities, leading to problems in setting objectives, forming development strategies or communication amongst important local stakeholders. We claim that the iterative interplay between rural tourism and gentrification, preparing the ground for booming development well explains the process and its results. Territorial development, as we conclude, has to carefully apply neo-endogenous principles when working with rural tourism too.

A vállalati kapcsolt mérleg és partner- és termékszintű külkereskedelmi adatok segítségével lehet megvizsgálni azt, hogy milyen összefüggés van a vállalati termékválaszték és a vállalati termelékenység, valamint a vállalat egyéb jellemzői között, mint például a méret vagy a külföldi tulajdon aránya. A külkereskedelmi adatok alapján levonható következtetéseket egészítik ki a termelési és belföldi értékesítési adatokkal végzett elemzések eredményei. Ehhez és a külkeres­kedelmi adatok időbeli elemzéséhez összhangba kellett hozni a kétféle osztályozási rendszert. A termelési és értékesítési adatok csak részben támasztják alá a külkereskedelmi adatok alapján levonható következtetéseket. A külkereske­del­mi adatok szerint az export­választék bővítésének fontos össze­tevője az importválaszték bővítése, a vállalat mérete, a kül­földi tulajdon aránya és a termelékenység.