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Women and willingness to guess: an investigation using a high-stake test in the Spanish health sector

Nagore Iriberri

SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association2026https://doi.org/10.1007/s13209-026-00329-0article
AJG 1ABDC B
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

Abstract Multiple-choice tests are the gateway to important professional outcomes in the Spanish health sector. Every year, thousands of nursing, psychology, pharmacy, and biology graduates take a multiple-choice test, with wrong answers penalized, in order to access an intern position in a hospital. In such tests, willingness to guess , the decision to provide an answer instead of omitting the question can have a differential effect on the overall performance. This paper first studies the evolution of gender differences in willingness to guess, measured by the proportion of answered questions, over a 40-year period. Second, we exploit a natural experiment that occurred between 2014 and 2015, when the number of alternative answers was reduced from 5 to 4, effectively lowering the penalty for incorrect answers, to test for gender differential reactions in willingness to guess.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s13209-026-00329-0

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{nagore2026,
  title        = {{Women and willingness to guess: an investigation using a high-stake test in the Spanish health sector}},
  author       = {Nagore Iriberri},
  journal      = {SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/s13209-026-00329-0},
}

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Women and willingness to guess: an investigation using a high-stake test in the Spanish health sector

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.