High School Human Capital Portfolio and College Outcomes

Guy Tchuente

Journal of Human Capital, 2016, vol. 10, issue 3, 267 - 302

Abstract: This paper assesses the relationship between courses taken in high school and college major choice. It considers individuals as holding a portfolio of relative human capital rates that may be either similar to those in their major—specialized—or different from those in their major—diversified. Using High School and Beyond survey data, I find a U-shaped relationship between the diversification of the high school courses portfolio and college performance. Policy experiments, using a structural model, suggest that taking an additional quantitative course in high school increases the probability that a college student chooses a STEM major by 4 percentage points.

Date: 2016
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Working Paper: High school human capital portfolio and college outcomes (2015)
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