Essays on Women in Sports

This dissertation consists of three individual papers examining the economic determinants and consequences of women’s participation in sports. Chapter 1 investigates the effect of female leadership on resource allocation within NCAA Division 1 athletics. Using novel data and a difference-in-differences model, I find that hiring a female athletic director reduces spending on women’s sports by 4.5%, though it does not significantly alter the share of total spending allocated to women’s sports. Chapter 2 examines the causal effect of sports participation through Title IX on women’s wages and other life outcomes. Employing a shift-share research design with Title IX as the common shock, the findings indicate that a 10-percentage-point increase in girls’ sports participation in a state generates an average 5% increase in girls' wages when they are 25 to 34 years old. This wage effect is potentially explained by positive impacts on education, employment, leadership attainment, and delayed fertility. Finally, Chapter 3 extends the analysis of Title IX’s impact by investigating its causal impact on women’s exercise habits later in life. Using a shift-share instrument, I find that women who attended high school after Title IX implementation increased their daily exercise time by approximately 20 minutes compared to their pre-Title IX counterparts. Collectively, these papers provide new evidence on women in sports, a historically understudied topic.

Author dc:creator

• Kayley Grabowski (24400115)

• Economics
• General

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright
• Open Access after 2028-05-01

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.25417/uic.32995169.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/32995169