Wage Profiles in STEM and Non-STEM Careers

Michael Alexeev (), Yevgenia Chernina (), Vladimir Gimpelson () and Darya Zinchenko ()
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Michael Alexeev: Indiana University
Yevgenia Chernina: New Uzbekistan University
Vladimir Gimpelson: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Darya Zinchenko: Higher School of Economics (HSE)

No 17875, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We compare wage profiles for STEM-educated and non-STEM-educated individuals over their lifetimes. Using repeated cross-sectional data from Russia, we examine how the dynamics of these types of human capital are affected by technological developments, applying the Age-Period-Cohort decomposition to workers’ life cycle wage growth. Additionally, we account for heterogeneity in the impact of institutional quality on lifetime wage profiles. We show that STEM education is associated with flatter wage-experience profiles than non-STEM education, with the most pronounced differences observed among females. The cohort effect, apparently specific to the former Soviet-type economies, reveals itself in devaluing some types of older education, putting non-STEM cohorts educated during the Soviet period at a disadvantage relative to those with STEM education. Importantly, in the Russian case, the age/experience effects act in the direction opposite to the cohort effects, rendering the cross-sectional analysis somewhat misleading. Finally, wage-experience profiles for males with non-STEM education are steeper in regions with weak institutions than in regions with stronger institutions.

Keywords: age-period-cohort decomposition; life-cycle wage growth; wage; human capital; STEM; Russia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J24 J31 O33 O43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-inv and nep-lma
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