Data and Code for: Will Studying Economics Make You Rich? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of the Returns to College Major

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Zachary Bleemer, University of California, Berkeley; Aashish Mehta, University of California, Santa Barbara

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
  Data 11/18/2020 02:53:PM
0_Initiation_Programs.R text/x-r-syntax 49.6 KB 11/18/2020 11:48:AM
1_Construct_Data.R text/x-r-syntax 23.3 KB 11/18/2020 08:48:AM
2_Clean_Data.R text/x-r-syntax 33.2 KB 11/18/2020 09:52:AM
3_Analyze_Data.R text/x-r-syntax 53.5 KB 11/18/2020 09:52:AM
README.pdf application/pdf 183.1 KB 01/22/2021 08:18:AM

Project Citation: 

Bleemer, Zachary, and Mehta, Aashish. Data and Code for: Will Studying Economics Make You Rich? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of the Returns to College Major. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2022. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-03-21. https://doi.org/10.3886/E126941V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary This record contains the code and publicly-available data used to produce the results presented in "Will Studying Economics Make You Rich? A Regression Discontinuity Analysis of the Returns to College Major":

We investigate the wage return to studying economics by leveraging a policy that prevented students with low introductory grades from declaring the major. Students who barely met the GPA threshold to major in economics earned $22,000 (46%) higher annual early-career wages than they would have with their second-choice majors. Access to the economics major shifts students' preferences toward business/finance careers, and about half of the wage return is explained by economics majors working in higher-paying industries. The causal return to majoring in economics is very similar to observational earnings differences in nationally representative data.
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship; University of California

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms Economics of Education; Major Choice
JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      A22 Economic Education and Teaching of Economics: Undergraduate
      I26 Returns to Education
      J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
      J31 Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage California
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1999 – 2018
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 1999 – 2020
Universe:  View help for Universe 1999-2014 enrollees of the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) aggregate data; program source code; survey data
Collection Notes:  View help for Collection Notes Confidential data sources are omitted.

Methodology

Data Source:  View help for Data Source Public data:
The American Community Survey, 2000-2018
The U.S. Census, 2017
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1999-2018
The Internal Revenue Service, 1999-2017

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Published Versions

V1 [2022-03-21]

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