Heterogeneous Major Preferences for Extrinsic Incentives: The Effects of Wage Information on the Gender Gap in STEM Major Choice

Autor/inn/en	Ding, Yanqing; Li, Wei; Li, Xin; Wu, Yinduo; Yang, Jin; Ye, Xiaoyang
Titel	Heterogeneous Major Preferences for Extrinsic Incentives: The Effects of Wage Information on the Gender Gap in STEM Major Choice
Quelle	In: Research in Higher Education, 62 (2021) 8, S.1113-1145 (33 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Ye, Xiaoyang)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0361-0365
DOI	10.1007/s11162-021-09636-w
Schlagwörter	STEM Education; Majors (Students); Gender Differences; College Students; Student Attitudes; Student Behavior; Wages; Preferences; Intervention; Rural Areas; Foreign Countries; Course Selection (Students); China + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? STEM; Geschlechterkonflikt; Collegestudent; Schülerverhalten; Student behaviour; Wage; Löhne; Rural area; Ländlicher Raum; Ausland; Course selection; Student; Students; Kurswahl
Abstract	Despite the growing evidence of informational interventions on college and major choices, we know little about how such light-touch interventions affect the gender gap in STEM majors. Linking survey data to administrative records of Chinese college applicants, we conducted a large-scale randomized experiment to examine the STEM gender gap in the major preference beliefs, application behaviors, and admissions outcomes. We find that female students are less likely to prefer, apply to, and enroll in STEM majors, particularly Engineering majors. In a school-level cluster randomized controlled trial, we provided treated students with major-specific wage information. Students' major preferences are easily malleable that 39% of treated students updated their preferences after receiving the wage informational intervention. The wage informational intervention has no statistically significant impacts on female students' STEM-related major applications and admissions. In contrast, those male students in rural areas who likely lack such information are largely shifted into STEM majors as a result of the intervention. We provide supporting evidence of heterogeneous major preferences for extrinsic incentives: even among those students who are most likely to be affected by the wage information (prefer high paying majors and lack the wage information), female students are less responsive to the informational intervention. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01