Which Is More Consequential: Fields of Study or Institutional Selectivity?

Ma, Yingyi; Savaş, Gökhan

doi:10.1353/rhe.2014.0001

Cited by 34 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 69 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…As the share of master degrees and more advanced degrees varies by fields, the implication of our estimates of the advanced degree may differ by fields. Fourth, although college quality is beyond this study’s scope and no information on this is available in our data, it represents another important dimension of horizontal stratification (Zhang 2005; Ma and Savas 2014). Finally, as a cautionary note, the results do not reflect causal impacts of field of study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, given rising rates of college completion and increases in wage inequality within almost all demographic groups over recent decades (Autor 2014), other dimensions of educational attainment may be becoming increasingly important sources of earnings differentials. The socioeconomic differentiation associated with field of study and college type is now widely recognized as important features of the horizontal dimension of the educational stratification (Daymont and Andrisani 1984; Rumberger and Thomas 1993; Davies and Guppy 1997; Thomas 2000; Song and Glick 2004; Gerber and Cheung 2008; Ma and Savas 2014). …”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A large number of sociological studies have analyzed the impact of fields of study on the gender wage gap (e.g., Jacobs 1995; Turner and Bowen 1999; Ramirez and Wotipka 2001; Charles and Bradley 2002, 2009; Roksa 2005; England and Li 2006; Bobbit-Zeher 2007; Morgan et al 2013). Although these studies identify gender segregation in fields of study as a crucial mechanism behind the gender earnings gap, there is evidence that lucrative fields are equally beneficial for both men and women (e.g., Ma and Savas 2014). Nonetheless, we expect to find some gender differences by field of study.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Field of Study in College and Lifetime Earnings in the United States

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Our understanding about the relationship between education and lifetime earnings often neglects differences by field of study. Utilizing data that matches respondents in the Survey of Income and Program Participation to their longitudinal earnings records based on administrative tax information, we investigate the trajectories of annual earnings following the same individuals over 20 years and then estimate the long-term effects of field of study on earnings for U.S. men and women. Our results provide new evidence revealing large lifetime earnings gaps across field of study. We show important differences in individuals’ earnings trajectories across the different stages of the work-life by field of study. In addition, the gaps in 40-year (i.e., ages 20 to 59) median lifetime earnings among college graduates by field of study are larger, in many instances, than the median gap between high school graduates and college graduates overall. Significant variation is also found among graduate degree holders. Our results uncover important similarities and differences between men and women with regard to the long-term earnings differentials associated with field of study. In general, these findings underscore field of study as a critical dimension of horizontal stratification in educational attainment. Other implications of the empirical findings are also discussed.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Field of Study in College and Lifetime Earnings in the United States

2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Young people from poorer backgrounds are less likely than those from better off families to go to university at all, and those who do go are less likely to attend high status institutions (Crawford et al ). As well as status differentials between universities, there are also differences in status and wage returns between degrees in different subject areas (Croxford and Raffe ; Jackson et al ; Kim, Tamborini and Sakamoto ; Ma and Savas ; O'Leary and Sloane ; Patrignani and Conlon ; Walker and Zhu ).…”

Section: Educational Inequalities From Early Childhood To Higher Educmentioning

confidence: 99%

The path from social origins to top jobs: social reproduction via education

Sullivan

Parsons

Green

et al. 2017

British Journal of Sociology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper provides a comprehensive account of the way in which cognitive and educational attainment mediate the link between social origins and elite social class destinations in mid-life. Using the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70), we assess the roles of a range of pathways through which educational advantage may lead to occupational attainment: cognitive development; private and selective secondary schools; school level qualifications; and higher education, including institution and field of study. Whereas past research has shown a residual direct effect of social origins on class destinations, we find that, once a sufficiently detailed picture of educational attainment is taken into account, education fully explains the link between social origins and top social class destinations. In contrast, the gap between men and women in achieving top social class positions is in no part accounted for by education.

show abstract

“…However, even among women who held degrees in STEM fields, employment in STEM jobs continues to lag that of their male counterparts. Women who graduate with degrees in STEM majors are less likely than their male counterparts to enter STEM occupations, or remain in them (Glass et al 2013;Ma and Savas 2014;Mann and DiPrete 2013;Sassler et al 2017). Historically, women were often discouraged from pursuing employment outside the home, particularly in jobs-such as those in STEM-typically thought of as "masculine" (Robinson and McIlwee 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Tale of Two Majors: Explaining the Gender Gap in STEM Employment among Computer Science and Engineering Degree Holders

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:We examine factors contributing to the gender gap in employment in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) among men and women with bachelor's degrees in computer science and engineering, the two largest and most male-dominated STEM fields. Data come from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System (SESTAT) from 1995 to 2008. Different factors are associated with persistence in STEM jobs among computer science and engineering degree holders. Conditional on receiving a degree in computer science, women are 14 percentage points less likely to work in STEM than their male counterparts. Controlling for demographic and family characteristics did little to change this gender gap. Women with degrees in engineering are approximately 8 percentage points less likely to work in STEM than men, although about half of this gap is explained by observed differences between men and women. We document a widening gender gap in STEM employment in computer science, but this gender gap narrows across college cohorts among those with degrees in engineering. Among recent computer science graduates, the gender gap in STEM employment for white, Hispanic, and black women relative to white men is even larger than for older graduates. Gender and race gaps in STEM employment for recent cohorts of engineering graduates are generally small, though younger Asian women and men no longer have an employment advantage relative to white men. Our results suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach to increasing women's representation in the most male-dominated STEM fields may not work.

show abstract

Which Is More Consequential: Fields of Study or Institutional Selectivity?

Cited by 34 publications

References 69 publications

Field of Study in College and Lifetime Earnings in the United States

Field of Study in College and Lifetime Earnings in the United States

The path from social origins to top jobs: social reproduction via education

A Tale of Two Majors: Explaining the Gender Gap in STEM Employment among Computer Science and Engineering Degree Holders

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About