Sharp bounds and testability of a Roy model of STEM major choices

Ismael Mourifie, Marc Henry and Romuald Méango

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: We analyze the empirical content of the Roy model, stripped down to its essential features, namely sector specific unobserved heterogeneity and self-selection on the basis of potential outcomes. We characterize sharp bounds on the joint distribution of potential outcomes and testable implications of the Roy self-selection model under an instrumental constraint on the joint distribution of potential outcomes we call stochastically monotone instrumental variable (SMIV). We show that testing the Roy model selection is equivalent to testing stochastic monotonicity of observed outcomes relative to the instrument. We apply our sharp bounds to the derivation of a measure of departure from Roy self-selection to identify values of observable characteristics that induce the most costly misallocation of talent and sector and are therefore prime targets for intervention. Special emphasis is put on the case of binary outcomes, which has received little attention in the literature to date. For richer sets of outcomes, we emphasize the distinction between pointwise sharp bounds and functional sharp bounds, and its importance, when constructing sharp bounds on functional features, such as inequality measures. We analyze a Roy model of college major choice in Canada and Germany within this framework, and we take a new look at the under-representation of women in~STEM.

Date: 2017-09, Revised 2019-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ecm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published in Journal of Political Economy (2019+)

Downloads: (external link)
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1709.09284 Latest version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Sharp Bounds and Testability of a Roy Model of STEM Major Choices (2020)
Working Paper: Sharp Bounds and Testability of a Roy Model of STEM Major Choices (2018)
Working Paper: SHARP BOUNDS AND TESTABILITY OF A ROY MODEL OF STEM MAJOR CHOICES (2018)
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:arx:papers:1709.09284

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Papers from arXiv.org
Bibliographic data for series maintained by arXiv administrators ().