Up in STEM, Down in Business: Changing College Major Decisions with the Great Recession

Shimeng Liu, Weizeng Sun () and John Winters
Additional contact information
Shimeng Liu: Jinan University
Weizeng Sun: Jinan University

No 10996, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We use the American Community Survey (ACS) to investigate the extent to which college major decisions were affected during and after the Great Recession with special attention to business and STEM fields, as well as the heterogeneity by gender, race/ethnicity and combinations of race/ethnicity and gender. Several conclusions are reached. First, we see an overall increase in the frequency of STEM majors but a decrease in the frequency of business majors during and after the Great Recession. Second, the increase for STEM fields is spread across several detailed STEM fields, while the decrease in business majors is especially concentrated among finance and management. Third, we find strong heterogeneous effects by gender and race/ethnicity. Males are pushed away from business majors, while both males and females are pushed toward STEM majors; certain racial groups, such as white and Asian, seem to be affected more than others.

Keywords: business; college major; Great Recession; finance; STEM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 56 pages
Date: 2017-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm and nep-sea
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published - published in: Contemporary Economic Policy, 2019, 37(3), 476-491

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https://docs.iza.org/dp10996.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: UP IN STEM, DOWN IN BUSINESS: CHANGING COLLEGE MAJOR DECISIONS WITH THE GREAT RECESSION (2019)
Working Paper: Up in STEM, Down in Business: Changing College Major Decisions with the Great Recession (2017)
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