IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ubc/clssrn/clsrn_admin-2013-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic Benefits of Studying Economics in Canada: A Comparison of Wages of Economics Majors with those in Other Disciplines Circa 2005

Author

Listed:
  • Akbari, Ather H.
  • Aydede, Yigit

Abstract

In universities across many western countries, student enrolments in economics discipline rose sharply towards the end of last decade but not in Canada. One reason for this outcome may be the continued perception of Canadian students of a lower economic reward to an economics degree. Using micro data from the 2006 census, we perform a comparative analysis of the wages earned by university degree holders in 50 disciplines in relation to economics. At undergraduate level, economics majors earned the 9th highest average wage in 2005, after controlling for demographic variables. On average, after controlling for demographic differences, workers whose wages were below those of economics majors earned about 16 percent lower while those who earned above economics majors earned about 10 percent higher. Similarity of their wages with physical science majors and their wage advantage over political science majors are also striking findings of this study. At graduate level, economics majors have greater wage advantage over other disciplines except for the business majors.

Suggested Citation

  • Akbari, Ather H. & Aydede, Yigit, 2013. "Economic Benefits of Studying Economics in Canada: A Comparison of Wages of Economics Majors with those in Other Disciplines Circa 2005," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2013-6, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 25 Feb 2013.
    • Handle: RePEc:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2013-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.clsrn.econ.ubc.ca/workingpapers/CLSRN%20Working%20Paper%20no.%20109%20-%20%20Akbari%20and%20Aydede.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dan A. Black & Seth Sanders & Lowell Taylor, 2003. "The Economic Reward for Studying Economics," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(3), pages 365-377, July.
    2. Ross Finnie & Alex Usher, 2007. "Room at the Top: Strategies for Increasing the Number of Graduate Students in Canada," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 245, February.
    3. Philip Lewis & Anne Daly & Don Fleming, 2004. "Why Study Economics? The Private Rate Of Return To An Economics Degree," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 23(3), pages 234-243, September.
    4. Alex Millmow & Cheryl Bookallil, 2006. "Girls And Economics: An Unlikely Coupling?," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 25(3), pages 221-234, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Joseph G. Altonji & Ling Zhong, 2021. "The Labor Market Returns to Advanced Degrees," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(2), pages 303-360.
    2. John Jerrim & Anna Vignoles & Ross Finnie, 2012. "University access for disadvantaged children: A comparison across English speaking countries," DoQSS Working Papers 12-11, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    3. Phil Lewis & Jee Young Lee, 2020. "The labour market outcomes of Australian Creative Arts degree holders," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 23(1), pages 21-42.
    4. John V. Winters, 2016. "Is economics a good major for future lawyers? Evidence from earnings data," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(2), pages 187-191, April.
    5. Ian Li & Andrew Williams & Ken Clements, 2023. "Labour Market Outcomes of Graduates in Economics in Australia," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 42(3), pages 306-323, September.
    6. Hamermesh, Daniel S. & Donald, Stephen G., 2008. "The effect of college curriculum on earnings: An affinity identifier for non-ignorable non-response bias," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 479-491, June.
    7. Daniel S. Hamermesh & Stephen G. Donald, 2004. "The Effect of College Curriculum on Earnings: Accounting for Non-Ignorable Non-Response Bias," NBER Working Papers 10809, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Patricia M. Flynn & Michael A. Quinn, 2010. "Economics: Good Choice of Major for Future Ceos," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 55(1), pages 58-72, May.
    9. John V. Winters & Weineng Xu, 2014. "Geographic Differences in the Earnings of Economics Majors," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(3), pages 262-276, September.
    10. O'Leary, Nigel C. & Sloane, Peter J., 2005. "The Return to a University Education in Great Britain," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 193, pages 75-89, July.
    11. Valerie Bostwick, 2016. "Signaling In Higher Education: The Effect Of Access To Elite Colleges On Choice Of Major," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(3), pages 1383-1401, July.
    12. Tran, Tuyen Quang & Van Vu, Huong, 2020. "Wage earning differentials by field of study: Evidence from Vietnamese university graduates," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    13. Robin L. Bartlett & Marianne A. Ferber & Carole A. Green, 2009. "Political Orientation and the Decision to Major in Economics: Some Preliminary Observations," International Review of Economic Education, Economics Network, University of Bristol, vol. 8(1), pages 13-31.
    14. 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.
    15. Philip R P Coelho & Tung Liu, 2017. "The Returns to College Education — An Analysis with College-Level Data," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 43(4), pages 604-620, September.
    16. John Marangos & Vasiliki Fourmouzi & Minoas Koukouritakis, 2013. "Factors that Determine the Decline in University Student Enrolments in Economics in Australia: An Empirical Investigation," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 89(285), pages 255-270, June.
    17. 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.
    18. David McClough & Mary Ellen Benedict, 2017. "Not All Education Is Created Equal: How Choice of Academic Major Affects the Racial Salary Gap," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 62(2), pages 184-205, October.
    19. Philip R. P. Coelho & Tung Liu, 2012. "The Returns to College Education," Working Papers 201202, Ball State University, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2012.
    20. Anne Daly & Don Fleming, 2006. "A Cohort Analysis of the Private Rate of Return to Higher Education in Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 9(3), pages 257-268, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Education; Economics degree ; Economic returns to human capital; Wage differentials;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ubc:clssrn:clsrn_admin-2013-6. 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: Vivian Tran (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.clsrn.econ.ubc.ca/ .

    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.