How much does degree choice matter?

Chris Belfield (), Jack Britton (), Franz Buscha, Lorraine Dearden (), Matt Dickson, Luke Sibieta (), Laura van der Erve (), Anna Vignoles, Ian Walker () and Yu Zhu
Additional contact information
Chris Belfield: Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute for Fiscal Studies
Jack Britton: Institute for Fiscal Studies
Franz Buscha: Institute for Fiscal Studies
Luke Sibieta: Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute for Fiscal Studies
Laura van der Erve: Institute for Fiscal Studies and Institute for Fiscal Studies
Ian Walker: Institute for Fiscal Studies and Lancaster University

No W21/24, IFS Working Papers from Institute for Fiscal Studies

Abstract: Using a large and novel administrative dataset, this paper investigates variation in returns to different higher education ‘degrees’ (subject-institution combinations) in the United Kingdom. Conditioning on a rich set background characteristics, it finds substantial variation in returns, even within subject, across universities with very similar selectivity levels, suggesting degree choices matter a lot for later-life earnings. Selectivity is weakly related to returns through most of the distribution but strongly positively correlated at the top end. Other than selectivity, returns are poorly correlated with observable degree characteristics, which has implications for student choices and the incentives of universities.

Date: 2021-08-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-his
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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