Lisa M. Dickson

Race and Gender Differences in College Major Choice

College major choice varies substantially by gender, race, and ethnicity among college graduates. This study investigates whether these differences are present at the start of the college career and whether they can be explained by variation in academic preparation. It estimates a multinomial logit to evaluate whether students of similar academic backgrounds make similar college major choices at the start of their college career. The results demonstrate that significant differences by gender, race, and ethnicity persist in initial college major choice even after controlling for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score of the student and the high school class rank of the student. Gender differences in major choice are much larger than racial and ethnic disparities. Furthermore, women are significantly more likely to switch away from an initial major in engineering than are white men.

Individual Investments in Higher Education

The decision of how much to invest in a college education has been shown to greatly affect an individual’s lifetime earnings. However, individuals may make inappropriate investments due to imperfect information and imperfect credit markets. This study reviews much of the theory about the proper level of investment in education and some of the current empirical evidence on the benefits and costs of a college education. In addition, a brief review of policies geared at increasing investments in education is presented.

Public Sector Employment and Earnings Differentials Across Countries: The Importance of Employee Preferences

This study uses individual-level data from Denmark, France, Germany, Norway and Switzerland to estimate the effects of employment in the public sector on earnings. The lack of a profit motive in the public sector may affect the types of workers who choose to work for the public sector. Using employee preferences over sector of employment as an instrument, the results reveal that sorting accounts for most of the difference in predicted earnings between the sectors. Previous studies that did not account for sorting appear to have overestimated the returns to working in the public sector. This pattern is evident in each of the countries studied.