Data and Code for: College Majors, Occupations, and the Gender Wage Gap

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Carolyn M. Sloane, University of California, Riverside; Erik G. Hurst, University of Chicago. Booth School of Business; Dan A. Black, University of Chicago. Harris School of Public Policy

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
Main Figures.xlsx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet	86.8 KB	09/29/2021 08:14:AM
Online Appendix Figures.xlsx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet	98.5 KB	09/29/2021 08:14:AM
Online-Appendix	application/pdf	607.9 KB	09/02/2021 09:14:PM
READ ME.pdf	application/pdf	194.6 KB	09/29/2021 08:15:AM
bin groups.csv	text/csv	1.1 KB	09/02/2021 09:14:PM
do replication file sloane hurst black jep.do	text/plain	578.3 KB	09/29/2021 08:13:AM
major_size.dta	application/x-stata-dta	3.7 KB	09/02/2021 09:14:PM
occ2005_occ1990dd.dta	application/x-stata-dta	3.3 KB	09/02/2021 09:14:PM
usa_00147.dat	text/plain	837.3 MB	09/02/2021 09:14:PM
usa_00165.dat	text/plain	1.9 GB	09/02/2021 09:14:PM

Project Citation:

Sloane, Carolyn M., Hurst, Erik G., and Black, Dan A. Data and Code for: College Majors, Occupations, and the Gender Wage Gap. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2021. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-09-29. https://doi.org/10.3886/E149061V1

Project Description

Summary: The paper assesses gender differences in pre-labor market specialization among the college-educated and highlights how those differences have evolved over time. Women choose majors with lower potential earnings (based on male wages associated with those majors) and subsequently sort into occupations with lower potential earnings given their major choice. These differences have narrowed over time, but recent cohorts of women still choose majors and occupations with lower potential earnings. Differences in undergraduate major choice explain a substantive portion of gender wage gaps for the college-educated above and beyond simply controlling for occupation. Collectively, our results highlight the importance of understanding gender differences in the mapping between college major and occupational sorting when studying the evolution of gender differences in labor market outcomes over time.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: college major; occupational categories; higher education; gender; occupations; wages and salaries

JEL Classification:
      I23 Higher Education; Research Institutions
      I26 Returns to Education
      J11 Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
      J16 Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
      J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

Geographic Coverage: United States of America

Time Period(s): 2014 – 2017

Data Type(s): census/enumeration data

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Published Versions

V1 [2021-09-29]

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DDI 2.5

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