The college double major and subsequent earnings

Steven Hemelt

Education Economics, 2010, vol. 18, issue 2, 167-189

Abstract: In this study I examine the relationship between graduating from college with two majors rather than one and labor market earnings using the 2003 National Survey of College Graduates. Because institutions are heterogeneous both in terms of overall quality and in the availability of opportunities to double major, I attempt to control for such overarching institutional differences and explore their effects on premiums to completing a double major. On average, I find a double major to earn 3.2% more than his/her single major counterpart. I also find evidence that premiums to double majoring differ across types of institutions: ranging from a near 4% premium at Research and Comprehensive universities to no effect at Liberal Arts colleges. Finally, I investigate the degree to which choices of first and second major academic disciplines affect earnings premiums.

Keywords: double major; earnings return (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09645290802469931 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:edecon:v:18:y:2010:i:2:p:167-189

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CEDE20

DOI: 10.1080/09645290802469931

Access Statistics for this article

Education Economics is currently edited by Caren Wareing and Steve Bradley

More articles in Education Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().