Field of Study and Lifetime Earnings in the United States

• In Event: 497 - Regular Session. Horizontal Stratification and Fields of Study in Higher Education

Abstract

There is widespread research and policy interest in differences in lifetime earnings by field of study. Utilizing data that matches respondents in the Survey of Income and Program Participation to their longitudinal earnings records from the Social Security Administration, we estimate the long-term effects of field of study on earnings for U.S. men and women. Our results reveal new evidence showing the large effects of field of study on earnings over a lifetime. The gap in 40-year (i.e., age 20 to 59) lifetime earnings between financially less rewarding fields of study and financially more rewarding fields of study is substantially larger than the gap between a high school graduate and a college graduate. Relative to having only a high school degree, a man with a bachelor’s degree who majored in education earned only about $61,000 more over 40 year work-life, while a man who majored in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) earned $978,000 more than a man who majored in education. The earnings effects of field of study vary across gender. Our results also uncover substantial heterogeneity within the same field. The gap in lifetime earnings between the 25th percentile and the 75th percentile of the same field of study tend to larger than the gap between the high school graduates and the median lifetime earnings of the major. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Authors

• Christopher R. Tamborini, U.S. Social Security Administration

• ChangHwan Kim, University of Kansas

• Arthur Sakamoto, Texas A&M University