The gender gap in college major choice in Chile

Paola Bordón, Catalina Canals and Alejandra Mizala ()

Economics of Education Review, 2020, vol. 77, issue C

Abstract: This paper studies gender differences in college applications in Chile. We use the revealed preferences of students for college major choice by taking advantage of Chile’s Centralized Admission System, and estimate a nested logit model to predict the first preference of applicants. We find that males apply to selective programs even when they are marginal candidates, while equally qualified female candidates tend to apply less often to these programs. Using counterfactual exercises, we conclude that to successfully address the gender gap, along with promoting females’ participation in STEM careers, we must increase males’ willingness to consider non-STEM fields. Closing the gender gap does not imply a loss in terms of talent distribution by area of knowledge.

Keywords: Gender gap; Gender preferences; College major choice; Nested logit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 I23 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:77:y:2020:i:c:s0272775719304698

DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102011

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