Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/185118 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 11658
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper uses administrative data from 16 cohorts of the Dutch population to study the relationship between field of study and family outcomes. We first document considerable variation by field of study for a range of family outcomes. To get to causal effects, we use admission lotteries that were conducted in the Netherlands to allocate seats for four substantially oversubscribed studies. We find that field of study matters for partner choice, which for women also implies an effect on partners' earnings. Fertility of women is not affected and evidence for men is mixed, but we find evidence for intergenerational effects on children's education. This means that field of study does not only affect individual labor market outcomes but also causally influences other important dimensions of a person's life.
Subjects: 
higher education
study choice
returns to education
assortative matching
intergenerational mobility
JEL: 
I26
J12
J13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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