How do young people choose college majors?

Abstract

Ce document est publié dans l'intention de rendre accessibles les résultats préliminaires de la recherche effectuée au CIRANO, afin de susciter des échanges et des suggestions. Les idées et les opinions émises sont sous l'unique responsabilité des auteurs, et ne représentent pas nécessairement les positions du CIRANO ou de ses partenaires. This paper presents preliminary research carried out at CIRANO and

Preferences, constraints, and the process of sex segregation in college majors: A choice analysis

“…Since college majors strongly vary in the degree to which they promise high incomes to students (van de Werfhorst and Kraaykamp, 2001;Glocker and Storck, 2014;Ochsenfeld, 2014), gender differences in work-lifestyle preferences could contribute to horizontal sex segregation. In line with this argument Montmarquette et al (2002) show that women respond significantly less to changes in college majors' earnings potential than men do. Zafar (2013: 571) finds that pecuniary aspects of the workplace explain as much as four times of the choice for males than do non-pecuniary aspects whereas for women's choices both aspects are equally important.…”

Multiple Job Holding as a Strategy for Skills Diversification and Labour Market Mobility

“…In addition, individuals who hold a second job for financial reasons are likely to compare the available employment opportunities they have and choose the one with the highest potential in terms of earnings capacity, in accordance with the prediction of standard models of occupational choice (e.g. Freeman, 1971;Boskin, 1974;Berger, 1988;Montmarquette et al, 2002). In order to capture this decision, a new variable in the dataset has thus been created that compares the wages that the individual is likely to receive from his current occupation with the predicted earnings from the best alternative occupation.…”

Wage differentials by field of study – the case of German university graduates

“…This reveals that expected earnings (e.g. Arcidiacono et al, 2010, Berger, 1988, Montmarquette et al, 2002 are not the only relevant factor for students' decision on the field of study. On the one hand, comparative advantages (e.g.…”