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People rely on their experiences when making important decisions. In making these decisions, individuals may be significantly influenced by the timing of their experiences. Using administrative data, we study whether the order in which students are assigned courses affects the choice of college major. We use a natural experiment at the United States Military Academy in which students are randomly assigned to certain courses either during or after the semester in which they are required to select their college major. We find that when students are assigned to a course in the same semester as they select a major, they are over 100 percent more likely to choose a major that corresponds to that course. Despite low switching costs, approximately half of the effect persists through graduation. Our results demonstrate that the timing of when students are assigned courses has a large and persistent effect on college major choice. We explore several potential mechanisms for these results and find that students’ initial major choice best fits a framework we develop that incorporates salience and availability. Furthermore, our results suggest that once students select a major, they are less likely to switch majors than the standard model of economic choice predicts. Instead, students’ decision to remain in a major is more consistent with status quo bias.

This paper investigates the labor market returns to high school types. We exploit comprehensive administrative data describing the school-to-work transition for the universe of Chilean students attending tenth grade in 2001. We discuss the role of self-selection into school types, pre-labor market abilities, firm characteristics, and present bounds for the parameters of interest. Attending private high schools has long-lasting e ects on earnings. Moreover, the long-term returns to school-level valueadded measures and monetary investments in education are larger among private-school students. Our findings provide new insights into the association of school choice and the inertia of income inequality.

NSF award funds collaboration between scholars at the University of Maryland and the University of Pennsylvania to study the effects of supply-side and demand-side policies

Susan W. Parker, Public Policy

Schooling Inequality, Returns to Schooling, and Earnings Inequality: Evidence from Brazil and South Africa

Natasha Cabrera and Elizabeth Karberg, University of Maryland; 2014-012

Sergio Urzua, University of Maryland; Tomás Rau, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Eugenio Rojas, Chilean Budget Office; 2013-017

Sergio Urzua, University of Maryland; Loreto Reyes, Ministry of Finance, Chile; Jorge Rodriguez, University of Chicago; 2013-018

Scaling Up School Readiness: Experimental Evidence from The Gambia

From Prenatal to the Block: Reimagining the Geography of Opportunity