The Analysis of Field Choice in College and Graduate School: Determinants and Wage Effects

Altonji, Joseph G.; Arcidiacono, Peter; Maurel, Arnaud

doi:10.3386/w21655

Cited by 163 publications

(192 citation statements)

References 74 publications

(138 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

182

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…While economically significant, it is interesting to note that this estimate is lower than most of the science major premia which have been obtained in earlier studies, including those based on structural models of college major choice (Altonji, Arcidiacono & Maurel 2016). This finding may partly reflect the fact that our estimates control for selection on ability using a choice model that is more flexible in what is included in the individual's information set.…”

Section: Wage Parametersmentioning

confidence: 56%

College Attrition and the Dynamics of Information Revelation

Arcidiacono

Aucejo

Maurel

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper investigates the role played by informational frictions in college and the workplace. We estimate a dynamic structural model of schooling and work decisions, where individuals have imperfect information about their schooling ability and labor market productivity. We take into account the heterogeneity in schooling investments by distinguishing between two-and four-year colleges, graduate school, as well as science and non-science majors for four-year colleges. Individuals may also choose whether to work full-time, part-time, or not at all. A key feature of our approach is to account for correlated learning through college grades and wages, whereby individuals may leave or re-enter college as a result of the arrival of new information on their ability and productivity. Our findings indicate that the elimination of informational frictions would increase the college graduation rate by 9 percentage points, and would increase the college wage premium by 32.7 percentage points through increased sorting on ability.

show abstract

Section: Wage Parametersmentioning

confidence: 56%

College Attrition and the Dynamics of Information Revelation

Arcidiacono

Aucejo

Maurel

et al. 2016

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…3 Altonji (1993) and Arcidiacono (2004) are notable exceptions, who incorporate the notion of uncertainty about ability into the probability of completing a college major in order to distinguish between ex ante and ex post returns to a particular course of study. See also the recent survey by Altonji, Arcidiacono, and Maurel (2016). 4 For example, it has been suggested that some managers, including CEOs, have more faith in their firm or in those that they acquire than is warranted.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning about Oneself: The Effects of Performance Feedback on School Choice

Bobba

Frisancho

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

work is licensed under a Creative Commons IGO 3.0 AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC-IGO BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo/ legalcode) and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose, as provided below. No derivative work is allowed.Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC-IGO license.Following a peer review process, and with previous written consent by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a revised version of this work may also be reproduced in any academic journal, including those indexed by the American Economic Association's EconLit, provided that the IDB is credited and that the author(s) receive no income from the publication. Therefore, the restriction to receive income from such publication shall only extend to the publication's author(s). With regard to such restriction, in case of any inconsistency between the Creative Commons IGO 3.0 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license and these statements, the latter shall prevail.Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license.The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Inter-American Development Bank, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.http://www.iadb.org 2016 Abstract * This paper designs and implements a field experiment that provides students from less advantaged backgrounds with individualized feedback on academic performance during the transition from middle to high school. The intervention reduces the gap between expected and actual performance, as well as shrinks the variance of individual ability distributions. Guided by a simple Bayesian model, the paper empirically documents the interplay between variance reductions and mean changes of beliefs in shaping curricular choices. The shift in revealed preferences on high school tracks enabled by the intervention affects schooling trajectories, with better-performing students being assigned into more academically oriented options.JEL classifications: D83, I21, I24, J24

show abstract

“…Major choice has a causal effect on future earnings (e.g. Altonji, Arcidiacono and Maurel, 2016;Kirkeboen, Leuven and Mogstad, 2016) and between 10 and 50 percent of the gender wage gap can be explained by gender differences in major choice (Brown and Corcoran, 1997;Daymont and Andrisa, 1984;Gerhart 1990;Machin and Buhani, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effect of Peer Gender on Major Choice

Zölitz¹,

Feld²

2017

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. This paper investigates how the peer gender composition in university affects students' major choices and labor market outcomes. Women who are randomly assigned to more female peers become less likely to choose male-dominated majors, they end up in jobs where they work fewer hours and their wage grows at a slower rate. Men become more likely to choose male-dominated majors after having had more female peers, although their labor market outcomes are not affected. Our results suggest that the increasing female university enrolment over recent decades has paradoxically contributed to the occupational segregation among university graduates that persists in today's labor market. Terms of use: Documents inKeywords: peer effects, major choice, gender composition JEL classification: I21, I24, J24 * We thank Massimo Anelli, Anne Brenøe, Luke Chu, Harold Cuffe, Johannes Hermle, Andrew Hill, Simon Jäger, Jason Lindo, Alfredo Paloyo, Chris Roth, Nicolas Salamanca, Petra Thiemann and seminar participants at Bocconi, Copenhagen Business School, IZA, Oxford University and the University of Zurich for helpful discussions and comments. We further like to thank the SBE Scheduling Department, the SBE Exams Office, and the Educational Research and Development Department for providing data and valuable background information over recent years. We have not received financial support for this project. We thank Sophia Wagner for providing outstanding research assistance.

show abstract

The Analysis of Field Choice in College and Graduate School: Determinants and Wage Effects

Cited by 163 publications

References 74 publications

College Attrition and the Dynamics of Information Revelation

College Attrition and the Dynamics of Information Revelation

Learning about Oneself: The Effects of Performance Feedback on School Choice

The Effect of Peer Gender on Major Choice

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About