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Field of study choice by community college students in Canada

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  • Boudarbat, Brahim

Abstract

Community college education is a key component of Canadian postsecondary education, with 21% of the population aged 25-64 having college credentials. In order to understand educational decisions at this level, we estimate a model of choice of field of study and analyze, among other things, the effect of earnings on this choice. In this way, we exploit two cross-sections (and cohorts) of young workers who completed community college (Cegeps in Quebec) in 1990 and 1995 from the Canadian National Graduate Survey. Structural estimates indicate that the probability of selecting a specific community college field of study depends significantly upon anticipated earnings in this field relative to other fields. Our results also show that women put less weight on earnings compared to men when choosing a field of study, and that students who were employed prior to starting community college are more sensitive to earnings variations across fields of study than students with no prior work experience.

Suggested Citation

  • Boudarbat, Brahim, 2008. "Field of study choice by community college students in Canada," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 79-93, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:27:y:2008:i:1:p:79-93
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    Cited by:

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    2. Sahoo, Soham & Klasen, Stephan, 2018. "Gender Segregation in Education and Its Implications for Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from India," IZA Discussion Papers 11660, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Freeman, James A. & Hirsch, Barry T., 2008. "College majors and the knowledge content of jobs," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 517-535, October.
    4. Osikominu, Aderonke & Grossmann, Volker & Osterfeld, Marius, 2014. "Are Sociocultural Factors Important for Studying a Science University Major?," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100404, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Aderonke Osikominu & Volker Grossmann & Marius Osterfeld, 2020. "Sociocultural background and choice of STEM majors at university," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 72(2), pages 347-369.
    6. repec:lic:licosd:27411 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Tuomo Suhonen, 2012. "The role of distances and parents’ educational background in university field of study choice," ERSA conference papers ersa12p751, European Regional Science Association.
    8. Nifo, Annamaria & Scalera, Domenico & Vecchione, Gaetano, 2016. "What do you want to be when you grow up? Local institutional quality and the choice of the fields of study in Italy (2004-2007)," MPRA Paper 69907, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Gunderson, Morley & Krashinsky, Harry, 2009. "Do Education Decisions Respond to Returns by Field of Study?," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2009-62, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 28 Nov 2009.
    10. Rita van Deuren & Sicco C. Santema, 2012. "How to choose your minor? Decision making variables used in the selection of a minor by undergraduate students from a Dutch university of applied sciences," Working Papers 2012/06, Maastricht School of Management.
    11. Grove, Wayne A. & Hussey, Andrew, 2014. "Returns to MBA quality: Pecuniary and non-pecuniary returns to peers, faculty, and institution quality," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 43-54.
    12. Aleksander Kucel & Montserrat Vilalta-Bufi, 2012. "Why do university graduates regret their study program? A comparison between Spain and the Netherlands," Working Papers in Economics 279, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    13. Nimra Tahira & Gulshan Maqboo & Muhammad Hassan Chaudhary & Shahbaz Ahmad, 2020. "Student Choice in Higher Education and Its Impact on Employment: An Evidence from Sargodha District of Pakistan," Journal of Economic Impact, Science Impact Publishers, vol. 2(2), pages 55-61.
    14. Philipp Kugler, 2022. "The role of wage beliefs in the decision to become a nurse," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 94-111, January.
    15. O. Poldin & D. Valeeva & M. Yudkevich, 2015. "Choice of specialization: do peers matter?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(44), pages 4728-4740, September.
    16. Bartolj, Tjaša & Polanec, Sašo, 2012. "College major choice and ability: Why is general ability not enough?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 996-1016.

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