Choosing The Field Of Study In Post-secondary Education: Do Expected Earnings Matter?

This paper examines the determinants of the choice of the major when the length of studies is uncertain, by using a framework in which students entering post-secondary education are assumed to anticipate their future earnings. For that purpose, the authors use French data coming from the 1992 and 1998 Génération surveys collected by the CEntre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur l'Emploi et les Qualifications (CEREQ, Marseille). Their econometric approach is based on a semi-structural three-equation model, which is identified thanks to some exclusion restrictions.