UP IN STEM, DOWN IN BUSINESS: CHANGING COLLEGE MAJOR DECISIONS WITH THE GREAT RECESSION

Shimeng Liu, Weizeng Sun and John Winters

Contemporary Economic Policy, 2019, vol. 37, issue 3, 476-491

Abstract: We use the American Community Survey (ACS) to investigate the extent to which college major decisions were affected during and after the Great Recession with special attention to business and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, as well as the heterogeneity across demographic groups. Several conclusions are reached. First, the Great Recession increased the frequency of STEM majors but decreased the frequency of business majors. Second, the increase for STEM fields spreads across several detailed STEM majors, while the decrease in business majors is especially concentrated among finance and management. Third, we find strong heterogeneous effects of the Great Recession by gender and race/ethnicity. (JEL I20, J24)

Date: 2019
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https://doi.org/10.1111/coep.12396

Related works:
Working Paper: Up in STEM, Down in Business: Changing College Major Decisions with the Great Recession (2017)
Working Paper: Up in STEM, Down in Business: Changing College Major Decisions with the Great Recession (2017)
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