College majors and the knowledge content of jobs

Abstract

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Do Non-Cognitive Skills Help Explain the Occupational Segregation of Young People?

“…Thus, non-cognitive skills provide an important explanation for the disparity in the fields that men and women study as well as in the occupations in which they are employed. This is consistent with previous research documenting the link between noncognitive skills and college enrollment (Jacob 2002), the effect of preferences on college major choices (Daymont and Andrisani 1984;Turner and Bowen 1999;Freeman and Hirsch 2008;Rosenbloom et al 2008), and the occupation-and gender-specific nature of the returns to noncognitive skills (Nyhus and Pons 2005;Mueller and Plug 2006;Cobb-Clark and Tan 2010). At the same time, there remains a large gap --despite our extensive controls --in the gender composition of the fields of study and occupations that men and women are entering.…”

“…Second, although researchers have traditionally focused on the importance of gender differences in human capital and labor market discrimination, new estimates of the role of preferences in occupational choice are beginning to suggest that a substantial fraction of the gender gap in occupations may stem from men's and women's preferences over job attributes (Daymont and Andrisani 1984;Turner and Bowen 1999;Rosenbloom et al 2008;Zahfar 2009). Men are often shown to be more responsive than women to expected earnings when choosing their fields of study, for example (Freeman and Hirsch 2008;Montmarquette et al 2002;Boudarbat and Montmarquette 2007;Zafar 2009). This 3 disparity has profound implications for gender equity more generally.…”

Field of Study, Qualification Mismatch, and Wages: Does Sorting Matter?

“…In the literature, individual characteristics such as gender and parents education (Boudarbat and Montmarquette, 2009), tastes and motivations (Hilmer and Hilmer, 2012) or expected earnings (Arcidiacono et al, 2012;Beffy et al, 2012;Freeman and Hirsch, 2008) have been found to be important predictors for subject choice. Notably, differences in ability affect the subject choice of college majors (Turner and Bowen, 1999).…”

Promoting scientific faculties: Does it work? Evidence from Italy

“…Berger (1988) stresses the importance of the streams of future earnings versus early income (at the time of the choice) as driving the students' choice of college majors. Freeman et al (2008) introduce the role of the knowledge content of a job. That is, the choice to undertake a specific major may be affected by the importance of the competencies provided by that major in the labor market, which may vary over years.…”