Essays on College Majors and Skills
Abstract
My thesis consists of three chapters that study relationships between college majors and multi-dimensional skills.
Chapter 2 examines the sources of wage penalties for working outside one's major field of study. Previous papers show that workers in a job which is unrelated to their major field of study tend to earn significantly lower wages than those in a related job. I use the 1993 National Survey of College Graduates and the O*NET to divide the sources of wage penalty into the levels of basic skills required in a job and the mismatch in major-specific knowledge. I find that the average wage penalty is 9% after conditioning on individual characteristics, such as degree type and field of study. Around 45% of the wage penalty stems from differences in the required levels of basic skills between related and unrelated jobs. I also find that the results are heterogeneous across degree types and fields of study. A mismatch in major-specific knowledge has a large effect on wages of workers with an advanced or specialized degree and on those who majored in Computer and Math Sciences or Engineering.
Chapter 3 estimates skill growth during college by major using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) and the O*NET. To capture both the type and quantity of accumulated skills, I assume that each major increases a general cognitive skill and a major-specific skill. I further allow for individual heterogeneity in skill growth. I take a task-based approach and use occupation choice to estimate skill growth in general cognitive skill. To deal with noisy skill measurements and endogeneity, a dynamic factor model is constructed. The results show a substantial growth of general cognitive skill in all majors, but with large differences across majors. I find different effects of pre-college skill levels on skill growth by major, but the differences are not large. The contribution of major-specific skill growth to wage growth is small compared to that of general cognitive skill growth.
Chapter 4 examines what skills are most closely associated with male college workers becoming managers from the perspective of human capital theory, with a focus on cognitive and social skills. I first construct a social task intensity measure using the American Community Survey 2010-2017 and the O*NET and document that management jobs tend to have high levels of social and cognitive task intensity. I then use the NLSY97 and analyze the transition patterns into management jobs. Most workers start their careers in non-management jobs, but workers who become managers relatively quickly tend to have jobs involving intense social tasks in an early stage of their careers, which may lead to a greater increase in their social skill. Business & Economics majors are more likely to become managers, but the results suggest that this mostly stems from skills other than social skill.