Abstract Whether males outperform females in mathematics is still debated. Such a gender gap varies across countries, but the determinants of the differences are unclear and could be produced by heterogeneity in the instructional systems or cultures and may vary across school grades. To clarify this issue, we took advantage of the INVALSI dataset, that offered over 13 million observations covering one single instructional system (i.e., the Italian system) in grades 2, 5, and 8, in the period 2010–2018. Results showed that males outperformed females in mathematics (and vice versa in reading), with gaps widening from the 2nd through to the 8th grade. The gender gap in mathematics was larger in the richer northern Italian regions (also characterized by greater gender equality) than in southern regions. This was not explained by average performance or fully accounted for by economic factors. No such north-south difference of the gap emerged in reading. Results are discussed with reference to the literature showing that the gender gap varies across world regions.

中文翻译：

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数学性别差距的人口水平分析：使用 INVALSI 数据集对超过 1300 万儿童的结果

摘要 男性在数学上是否优于女性仍存在争议。这种性别差距因国家而异，但差异的决定因素尚不清楚，可能是由教学系统或文化的异质性造成的，并且可能因学校年级而异。为了澄清这个问题，我们利用了 INVALSI 数据集，该数据集在 2010-2018 年期间提供了超过 1300 万次观察，涵盖了 2、5 和 8 年级的一个单一教学系统（即意大利系统）。结果表明，男性在数学方面的表现优于女性（反之亦然），从二年级到八年级的差距越来越大。与南部地区相比，意大利北部较富裕的地区（也以性别平等为特征）在数学方面的性别差距更大。这并没有用平均性能来解释，也没有完全用经济因素来解释。在阅读中没有出现这种南北差异。参考文献讨论了结果，这些文献表明世界各地的性别差距存在差异。