Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/168426 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
GLO Discussion Paper No. 117
Publisher: 
Global Labor Organization (GLO), Maastricht
Abstract: 
We use the American Community Survey (ACS) to investigate the extent to which college major decisions were affected during and after the Great Recession with special attention to business and STEM fields, as well as the heterogeneity by gender, race/ethnicity and combinations of race/ethnicity and gender. Several conclusions are reached. First, we see an overall increase in the frequency of STEM majors but a decrease in the frequency of business majors during and after the Great Recession. Second, the increase for STEM fields is spread across several detailed STEM fields, while the decrease in business majors is especially concentrated among finance and management. Third, we find strong heterogeneous effects by gender and race/ethnicity. Males are pushed away from business majors, while both males and females are pushed toward STEM majors; certain racial groups, such as white and Asian, seem to be affected more than others.
Subjects: 
Great Recession
College Major
Business
Finance
STEM
JEL: 
I20
J24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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