Gender Differences in Rating the Teaching of EconomicsGender Differences in Rating the Teaching of Economics

This paper examines the effect of instructor and student gender on students' ratings of teaching. We analyze data on ratings of instructors of introductory economics classes from a sample of students at 53 different colleges and universities in the United States. We find, controlling for other characteristics of the instructor and students, no difference in the ratings of male and female instructors of introductory macroeconomics but, on all instructor dimensions, women receive higher ratings than men in introductory microeconomics. In addition, women students have mete difficulty with, and less interest in economics than men.