Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/207439 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 12614
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper examines how college students in the United States altered their college major decisions during the energy boom and bust of the 1970s and 1980s. We focus on petroleum engineering and geology, two majors closely related to the energy industry. We find strong evidence that the energy boom increased the prevalence of these two energy-related majors and the energy bust lowered the prevalence of these majors. Effects are particularly strong for young people born in energy intensive states. Thus, college major decisions responded to industry fluctuations with important location-specific effects consistent with frictions to migration and information flows.
Subjects: 
college major
human capital
higher education
energy boom
energy bust
JEL: 
I20
J20
J60
R10
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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