TY  - JOUR
AU  - Stevenson,Betsey
TI  - Beyond the Classroom: Using Title IX to Measure the Return to High School Sports
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15728
PY  - 2010
Y2  - February 2010
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15728
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15728.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Betsey Stevenson
The Wharton School
University of Pennsylvania
1454 Steinberg - Dietrich Hall
3620 Locust Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Tel: 215/898-3019
Fax: 215/898-7635
E-Mail: betseys@wharton.upenn.edu
AB  - Between 1972 and 1978 U.S. high schools rapidly increased their female athletic participation rates—to approximately the same level as their male athletic participation rates—in order to comply with Title IX, a policy change that provides a unique quasi-experiment in female athletic participation.  This paper examines the causal implications of this expansion in female sports participation by using variation in the level of boys’ athletic participation across states before Title IX to instrument for the change in girls’ athletic participation.  Analysis of differences in outcomes across states in changes between pre- and post-cohorts reveals that a 10-percentage point rise in state-level female sports participation generates a 1 percentage point increase in female college attendance and a 1 to 2 percentage point rise in female labor force participation.  Furthermore, greater opportunities to play sports leads to greater female participation in previously male-dominated occupations, particularly in high-skill occupations.
ER  -