Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/305679 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 17237
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We develop a model of college major selection in an environment where firms and students have incomplete information about the student's aptitude. Students must choose from a continuum of majors which differ in their human capital production function and can act as a signal to the market. Whether black students choose more or less difficult majors than similar white students, and whether they receive a higher or lower return to major difficulty, depends on the extent to which employers statistically discriminate. We find strong evidence that statistical discrimination influences major choice using administrative data from several large universities and two nationally representative surveys.
Subjects: 
mismatch
affirmative action
statistical discrimination
JEL: 
J71
J15
I26
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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