Does Late Specialization Improve College Students' Major Interests? Evidence From China

• In Event: 14.045 - Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: 14.045-6 - Division J Section 5 Roundtable 3

Abstract

The timing of major choice varies across different systems of higher education. The introduction of a later specialization program, which coexists with other earlier specialization programs in the same university in China, provides us an opportunity to exam the effects of late specialization on college students’ interests in major. To avoid the selection bias we match each student in program Y with his/her ‘closest twin’ in the traditional programs. We employ a pair fixed effect model as well as an OLS model to estimate the impact of late specialization timing on students’ interests in major.The preliminary analysis shows that there is no significant difference in students’ interests in current majors between students in early and late specialization programs.

Author

• Liping Ma, Peking University