How Early Adolescent Skills and Preferences Shape Economics Education Choices
- (pp. 609-13)
Abstract
Leveraging data from Sweden and Chicago, we study the educational pipeline for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and economics majors to better understand the determinants of the gender gap and when these determinants arise. We present three findings. First, females are less likely to select STEM courses in high school despite equal or better preparation. Second, there are important gender differences in preferences and beliefs, even conditional on ability. Third, early differences in preferences and beliefs explain more of the gaps in high school sorting than other candidate variables. High school sorting then explains a large portion of the gender difference in college majors.Citation
Fiala, Lenka, John Eric Humphries, Juanna Schrøter Joensen, Uditi Karna, John A. List, and Gregory F. Veramendi. 2022. "How Early Adolescent Skills and Preferences Shape Economics Education Choices." AEA Papers and Proceedings, 112: 609-13. DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20221037Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- A22 Economic Education and Teaching of Economics: Undergraduate
- I23 Higher Education; Research Institutions
- I26 Returns to Education
- J13 Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination