Geographic Differences in the Earnings of Economics Majors

John Winters and Weineng Xu

No 7584, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Economics has been shown to be a relatively high earning college major, but geographic differences in earnings have been largely overlooked. This paper uses the American Community Survey to examine geographic differences in both absolute earnings and relative earnings for economic majors. We find that there are substantial geographic differences in both the absolute and relative earnings of economics majors even controlling for individual characteristics such as age and advanced degrees. We argue that mean earnings in specific labor markets are a better measure of the benefits of majoring in economics than simply looking at national averages.

Keywords: local labor markets; economics major; earnings differentials; college education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 J24 J31 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2013-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo, nep-lab and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Journal of Economic Education, 2014, 45 (3), 262-276

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Related works:
Journal Article: Geographic Differences in the Earnings of Economics Majors (2014)
Working Paper: Geographic Differences in the Earnings of Economics Majors (2013)
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