College-Major Choice to College-Then-Major Choice

Paola Bordon and Chao Fu

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Many countries use college-major-specific admissions policies that require a student to choose a college-major pair jointly. Given the potential of student-major mismatches, we explore the equilibrium effects of postponing student choice of major.We develop a sorting equilibrium model under the collegemajor- specific admissions regime, allowing for match uncertainty and peer effects.We estimate the model using Chilean data.We introduce the counterfactual regime as a Stackelberg game in which a social planner chooses college-specific admissions policies and students make enrolment decisions, learn about their fits to various majors before choosing one. Our estimates indicate that switching from the baseline to the counterfactual regime leads to a 1% increase in average student welfare and that it is more likely to benefit female, low-income and/or low-ability students.

Keywords: College-major choice; major-specific ability; uncertainty; peer effects; equilibrium; admission systems; cross-system comparison (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 J00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-05-15
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (39)

Published in Review of Economic Studies 4.82(2015): pp. 1247-1288

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:79643

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