Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/35928 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 4738
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The choice of a college major plays a critical role in determining the future earnings of college graduates. Students make their college major decisions in part due to the future earnings streams associated with the different majors. We survey students about what their expected earnings would be both in the major they have chosen and in counterfactual majors. We also elicit students' subjective assessments of their abilities in chosen and counterfactual majors. We estimate a model of college major choice that incorporates these subjective expectations and assessments. We show that both expected earnings and students' abilities in the different majors are important determinants of student's choice of a college major. We also show that students' forecast errors with respect to expected earnings in different majors is potentially important, with our estimates suggesting that 7.5% of students would switch majors if they made no forecast errors.
Subjects: 
Choice of college major
subjective expectations
JEL: 
I2
C81
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
248.79 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.