IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/66001.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Financial Crisis and the Choice of College Major

Author

Listed:
  • Goulas, Sofoklis
  • Megalokonomou, Rigissa

Abstract

Economic conditions may affect educational choices. In this paper we investigate the impact of the recent financial crisis in Greece on college applications. In particular, we ask how the financial turmoil has reshaped the demand for particular college majors. The paper uses a difference-in-difference approach for the pre and during crisis era to disentangle preferences over twenty one broad major categories and over college city amenities. We find that job insecurity turns college applicants away from academically demanding college majors, while options with better job prospects become more popular.

Suggested Citation

  • Goulas, Sofoklis & Megalokonomou, Rigissa, 2015. "The Financial Crisis and the Choice of College Major," MPRA Paper 66001, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:66001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/66001/1/MPRA_paper_66001.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hershbein Brad J., 2012. "Graduating High School in a Recession: Work, Education, and Home Production," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-32, January.
    2. Arcidiacono, Peter & Hotz, V. Joseph & Kang, Songman, 2012. "Modeling college major choices using elicited measures of expectations and counterfactuals," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 166(1), pages 3-16.
    3. Kahn, Lisa B., 2010. "The long-term labor market consequences of graduating from college in a bad economy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 303-316, April.
    4. Goulas, Sofoklis & Megalokonomou, Rigissa, 2015. "Social Interactions Through Space and Time: Evidence from College Enrollment and Academic Mobility," MPRA Paper 65882, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Bradley, Elizabeth S., 2012. "The Effect of the Business Cycle on Freshman Major Choice," MPRA Paper 42412, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Albertos Azaria & George Karavasilis & Evangelos Kehris & Vasiliki Vrana, 2019. "The Impact of Financial Crisis on University Students in Greece," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 17(2), pages 193-219.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sofoklis Goulas & Rigissa Megalokonomou, 2019. "Which degrees do students prefer during recessions?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 2093-2125, June.
    2. Erica Blom & Brian C. Cadena & Benjamin J. Keys, 2021. "Investment over the Business Cycle: Insights from College Major Choice," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(4), pages 1043-1082.
    3. Shimeng Liu & Weizeng Sun & John V. Winters, 2019. "Up In Stem, Down In Business: Changing College Major Decisions With The Great Recession," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(3), pages 476-491, July.
    4. Dillender, Marcus & Friedson, Andrew & Gian, Cong & Simon, Kosali, 2019. "Does the healthcare educational market respond to short-run local demand?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    5. Eleanor Jawon Choi & Jaewoo Choi & Hyelim Son, 2019. "The Long-Term Effects of Labor Market Entry in a Recession: Evidence from the Asian Financial Crisis," Upjohn Working Papers 19-312, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    6. Clémentine Garrouste & Mathilde Godard, 2016. "The lasting health impact of leaving school in a bad economy : Britons in the 1970s recession," Post-Print hal-01408637, HAL.
    7. Johanna Catherine Maclean, 2016. "Does Leaving School in an Economic Downturn Persistently Affect Body Weight? Evidence from Panel Data," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 122-148, January.
    8. Cockx, Bart & Ghirelli, Corinna, 2016. "Scars of recessions in a rigid labor market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 162-176.
    9. Brian Bell & Anna Bindler & Stephen Machin, 2018. "Crime Scars: Recessions and the Making of Career Criminals," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(3), pages 392-404, July.
    10. Maclean, Johanna Catherine & Hill, Terrence D., 2015. "Leaving school in an economic downturn and self-esteem across early and middle adulthood," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 1-12.
    11. Haaland, Venke Furre, 2013. "The Lost Generation: Effects of Youth Labor Market Opportunities on Long-Term Labor Market Outcomes," UiS Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2013/8, University of Stavanger.
    12. Bradley, Elizabeth S., 2012. "The Effect of the Business Cycle on Freshman Major Choice," MPRA Paper 42412, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Yue Yin & Ye Jiang, 2023. "Fertility Effects of Labor Market Conditions at Graduation," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 31(4), pages 120-152, July.
    14. Kevin Rinz, 2022. "Did Timing Matter? Life Cycle Differences in Effects of Exposure to the Great Recession," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(3), pages 703-735.
    15. Fraser Summerfield & Ioannis Theodossiou, 2017. "The Effects Of Macroeconomic Conditions At Graduation On Overeducation," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(3), pages 1370-1387, July.
    16. Mattias Engdahl & Mathilde Godard & Oskar N Skans, 2018. "Early Labor Market Prospects and Family Formation," Working Papers halshs-01958437, HAL.
    17. David L. Sjoquist & John V. Winters, 2015. "State Merit Aid Programs and College Major: A Focus on STEM," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(4), pages 973-1006.
    18. Eleanor J. Choi & Jaewoo Choi & Hyelim Son, 2020. "The Long-Term Effects of Labor Market Entry in a Recession: Evidence from the Asian Financial Crisis," Working Papers 637, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    19. Choi, Eleanor J. & Choi, Jaewoo & Son, Hyelim, 2020. "The Long-Term Effects of Labor Market Entry in a Recession: Evidence from the Asian Financial Crisis," IZA Discussion Papers 13009, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Effrosyni Adamopoulou & Giulia Martina Tanzi, 2017. "Academic Drop-Out and the Great Recession," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(1), pages 35-71.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    crisis; college major; unemployment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I26 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Returns to Education
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:66001. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.