Agenda

Alexander Cappelen (Norwegian School of Economics) - A Competitive World

Abstract:

We provide the first globally representative evidence on the nature and socialization of willingness to compete, drawing on survey data from 66,785 individuals across 62 countries. The data were collected through a novel survey module fielded in the 2022 Gallup World Poll, which measures individuals' willingness to compete and their views on whether boys or girls -- randomized across respondents -- should be encouraged to compete. We document striking global regularities: in all but one country, men are more willing to compete than women, and willingness to compete is positively associated with income, education, confidence, and risk tolerance in nearly every country. At the same time, we find large cross-country variation in both willingness to compete and its socialization, which we show is systematically linked to inequality and population growth. People in more unequal countries and countries with rapid recent population growth are more likely to value willingness to compete in themselves and in children. Strikingly, this also applies within the same country to people who were exposed to higher levels of inequality and population growth during adolescence. Gender gaps in socialization vary with gender equality, reinforcing gender differences where gender equality is low and counteracting them where it is high. Within country, gender gaps are smaller in cohorts that were exposed to higher levels of gender equality during adolescence. Taken together, our findings offer new insights into the behavioral foundations and formative roots of competitiveness across societies.