Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/328197 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 18067
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Existing research suggests that broad versus specialized university curricula does not significantly lead to differences in earnings and unemployment outcomes shortly after graduation. This paper builds on previous work by examining the impact of curriculum breadth on medium-term labor market outcomes, up to six years after students have graduated. Exploiting 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 a large faculty to unexpectedly read a more specialized curriculum, we find, using a difference-in-differences approach, that while taking a more specialized curriculum does not initially affect labor earnings shortly after graduation, its effect becomes negative and increases with work experience. We find no evidence that lower earnings are due to a lower propensity to switch jobs, suggesting weaker within-firm earnings trajectories among more specialized graduates.
Subjects: 
university curriculum
curriculum breadth
difference-in-differences
earnings
employment
JEL: 
I21
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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