“Advising, Gender, and Performance: Evidence from a University with Exogenous Adviser-Student Gender Match,” a paper by W.S. Schupf Professor in Far Eastern Studies and Professor of Economics Takao Kato and Associate Professor of Economics Yang Song, appears in the January 2022 Issue of Economic Inquiry.
The paper provides the first causal evidence on the effects of gender match in the adviser–student relationship (as opposed to the well-researched instructor–student relationship) on student outcomes along both the intensive and extensive margins. Matching a female student with a female adviser is found to have a positive and significant effect on retention and grade point average (GPA) upon graduation, particularly for students with academic challenges. For female students with below-median high school GPA, gender match is also found to raise the odds of graduate school enrollments.
The paper is free to read at