Unraveling Gender Differences in Multiple-Choice Tests: A Detailed Analysis in the 'Public Economics' Course of the Economics Degree.

The academic outcomes of students are crucial both for successfully completing their studies and for securing a job that aligns with their education. The innovation presented here focuses on analysing whether there are gender differences in academic performance when taking multiple-choice tests to pass a mandatory third-year course in the Economics degree, "Public Economics" (both in Spanish and in English). To mitigate randomness, a penalty has been established so that incorrect answers score negatively. This approach allows for the examination of gender differences in the tendency to leave questions unanswered. To conduct the analysis, we took advantage of the fact that this mandatory course began in English at the University of Cantabria in the academic year 2021/2022. In the current academic year 2023/2024, it has completed its third year of delivery during the first semester (September-January). The idea is to compare the results of multiple-choice exams taken on the day of the regular examination and see if there are differences between male and female students (over the last two academic years). It is worth mentioning that the final exam, both in the regular and extraordinary sessions, consists of two differentiated parts. On one hand, a section with theoretical knowledge based on a series of multiple-choice test questions. On the other hand, a section with practical cases and/or open-ended questions. The results show that there are no major differences in the behaviour or average performance of women and men. In any case, the importance of continuous evaluation is evident, a system that most students opt for, and it is the one analysed here.