 Opening the black box of college major choice: Evidence from an information interventionFulya Ersoy and Jamin D. Speer Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2025, vol. 231, issue C Abstract: This study examines the role of job-related and non-job-related factors in college major choice. Using a staggered intervention, we provide students information on various aspects of majors and assess the impact of different pieces of information on their stated choices. We show that major choices depend on a wide set of factors, especially for students who are initially unsure about their major choice. The non-job-related factors, such as a major’s course difficulty and gender composition, are particularly important to students. Male and female students value different major characteristics in different ways. Female students – particularly those with below-median high school GPA – avoid majors that are more difficult than they originally believed, while male students are averse to majors with more female faculty but prefer those with more female students. Our findings help us understand gender gaps in college major choice and have a number of implications for researchers and policymakers seeking to study major choice or influence those choices. Keywords: College major choice; Beliefs; Job-related factors; Non-job-related factors (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:231:y:2025:i:c:s0167268124004141 DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2024.106800 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D. More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier |
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