Peer Gender Composition and Choice of College Major / Massimo Anelli, Giovanni Peri.

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Anelli, Massimo

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TextSeries: Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; no. w18744.Publication details: Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2013.Description: 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white)Subject(s):

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Abstract: In this paper we analyze whether the gender composition of classmates in high school affects the choice of college-major by shifting it towards those majors preferred by the prevalent gender in the class. We use a novel dataset of 30,000 Italian students graduated from high school between 1985 and 2005 and followed through college and in the labor market. We exploit the fact that the gender composition of the graduating high school class, from one year to the next, within School-Teacher assignment group, shows large variation that we document to be as good as random. We find that male students who attended a high school class with at least 90% of male classmates were significantly more likely to choose "prevalently male" college majors (i.e. Economics, Business and Engineering). However, in the long-run, the higher propensity to enroll in "prevalently male" majors (that are more academically demanding) did not translate in higher probability of graduating in them. In fact, male students from high school classes with >90% males ended up with lower probability of graduating altogether, and they exhibited worse university performance. The peer-pressure towards prevalently male majors may generate mismatches that are counterproductive for college performance and graduation probability of male students. We do not observe these effects on female.

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Working Paper	Biblioteca Digital	Colección NBER	nber w18744 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Not For Loan

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Previous	nber w18741 Measuring Sovereign Contagion in Europe /	nber w18742 Poverty and Self-Control /	nber w18743 Ambiguity Aversion and Household Portfolio Choice: Empirical Evidence /	nber w18744 Peer Gender Composition and Choice of College Major /	nber w18745 College as Country Club: Do Colleges Cater to Students' Preferences for Consumption? /	nber w18746 The Missing Transmission Mechanism in the Monetary Explanation of the Great Depression /	nber w18747 Incentive Effects of Inheritances and Optimal Estate Taxation /	Next

January 2013.

In this paper we analyze whether the gender composition of classmates in high school affects the choice of college-major by shifting it towards those majors preferred by the prevalent gender in the class. We use a novel dataset of 30,000 Italian students graduated from high school between 1985 and 2005 and followed through college and in the labor market. We exploit the fact that the gender composition of the graduating high school class, from one year to the next, within School-Teacher assignment group, shows large variation that we document to be as good as random. We find that male students who attended a high school class with at least 90% of male classmates were significantly more likely to choose "prevalently male" college majors (i.e. Economics, Business and Engineering). However, in the long-run, the higher propensity to enroll in "prevalently male" majors (that are more academically demanding) did not translate in higher probability of graduating in them. In fact, male students from high school classes with >90% males ended up with lower probability of graduating altogether, and they exhibited worse university performance. The peer-pressure towards prevalently male majors may generate mismatches that are counterproductive for college performance and graduation probability of male students. We do not observe these effects on female.