The lifetime earnings premia of different majors: Correcting for selection based on cognitive, noncognitive, and unobserved factors

Douglas Webber

Labour Economics, 2014, vol. 28, issue C, 14-23

Abstract: This paper constructs a simulation approach to estimate the lifetime returns to various college majors. I use data from the 1979 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and American Community Survey to estimate the parameters which form the backbone of the simulation. I address selection into both higher education and specific major categories using measures of cognitive and noncognitive ability. Additionally, I present the lifetime premia under various assumptions regarding the magnitude of unobservable sorting.

Keywords: Return to education; Major choice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (44)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:28:y:2014:i:c:p:14-23

DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2014.03.009

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