Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/223806 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 13364
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We explore whether the choice of broad versus specialized university curricula affects subsequent labor market outcomes, as measured by earnings, full-time permanent employment, and unemployment six months after university graduation. We exploit a unique episode in the history of the National University of Singapore, in which a university-wide revision in graduation requirements in 2007 prompted students in one of the largest faculties to read a narrower, more specialized, curriculum. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we compare changes in the labor market outcomes of graduate cohorts from the affected faculty, before-and-after the curriculum revision, to changes in the labor market outcomes of graduate cohorts from the other faculties. We do not find evidence that curriculum breadth matters for these labor market outcomes. Similar conclusions are obtained using regression-control strategies and rich administrative data on student characteristics and academic ability for the broader population of undergraduates at NUS.
Subjects: 
university curriculum
curriculum breadth
difference-in-differences
earnings
employment
JEL: 
I21
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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