Missing Einsteins in Emerging Europe and Central Asia?

By Didem Okyay and Alexander Plekhanov

This paper examines variation in gender gaps in mathematics across economies, with a particular focus on high-achieving students who are more likely to become future innovators in STEM fields. Using pooled microdata from the 2012, 2015, 2018 and 2022 waves of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), covering more than two million students across advanced economies and emerging markets, the documents in a number of stylized facts. Female students tend to underperform male students in mathematics on average and outperform in reading. The average gender gap in maths performance widens substantially towards the upper tail of the distribution of test scores. This widening of the gender gaps is significantly less pronounced in post-communist economies in Emerging Europe and Central Asia than in advanced economies and other emerging markets, resulting in a more balanced gender representation among the highest-achieving students. This lasting legacy of strong and relatively egalitarian maths tuition under central planning remains a potential source of competitive advantage for these economies.