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Gender and cooperation in children: experiments in Colombia and Sweden
Juan-Camilo Cárdenas1, Anna Dreber2, Emma von Essen3
1Department of Economics and CEDE, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.
Abstract:
In this article we compare cooperation among Colombian and Swedish children aged 9-12. We illustrate the dynamics of the prisoner's dilemma in a new task that is easily understood by children and performed during a physical education class. We find no robust evidence of a difference in cooperation between Colombia and Sweden overall. However, Colombian girls cooperate less than Swedish girls. We also find indications that girls in Colombia are less cooperative than boys. Finally, there is also a tendency for children to be more cooperative with boys than with girls on average.
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